Avarice and Jealousy
by Rinso
Summary: FMA:Brotherhood AU centered around the strange and very dysfunctional relationship between Greed the Avaricious and Envy the Jealous. Will span over the whole series, and will mostly follow a rough chronological order (unless I need to put in a flashback for one reason or another) but due to the AU nature of the story, some outcomes might turn out differently...
1. Chapter 1

_A few months ago I watched "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood". I'm not very much into anime, but words can't describe how much I loved it. It's phenomenally good._

 _As I often do when I fall in love with a new fandom, I started checking out some fics here and there, and while I managed to find some pretty good stuff, I also began to feel the itch to write something myself. One thing I really liked about FMA were the villains. Styled after the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins, the Homunculi made a strong impression on me, especially Greed (the original one; Ling was cool and I love him, but I'm not interested in writing about conflicted good guys at this point) and Envy._

 _This is somewhat of a crack pairing. I'm aware of it. In canon Greed and Envy seemed to actually have a very strong dislike for each other but... for some reason my brain decided that it didn't care and that it wanted to try and ship them. So I wanted to see if I can get into their heads and make something out of it while keeping them at least somewhat in character. The last part is probably doomed to failure, btw._

* * *

"And if I were to ask you to return and work for me again?"

Father's voice was calm as ever. In all his existence Greed had never managed to sniff even a smidge of emotion when his old man spoke. Even Lust, with her dead, cold stare, was capable of conveying feelings. All the same, though, Greed heard the real question Father was asking. _Will you submit or will you die?_

And as he hung in the air, chained to the slab of granite, he knew that this death was going to be final. There was only one person in the world who could truly and utterly destroy the Homunculi, and that person was their damned father.

It was so... tempting.

To tell the old man to shove it, to spit in his wrinkled face one last time before he plummeted in Hell.

With everything he was, Greed wanted to snarl something defiant, to try and bait the old man's ire into revealing itself. He was Greed the Avaricious. He was meant to own the world. Everything belonged to him. Maybe not in the strictly... political sense of the word, Greed supposed, but that would be boring anyway and was merely a charade for the silly humans. No, Greed owned it in a more primal manner. People were indistinguishable from objects, which were the same as memories, experiences and emotions. He desired every single thing. He was made to want. To take.

If something existed, then it was Greed's property. It was simply a matter of time and whim. And he had always had plenty of both. That's how the Universe was.

How can he bow to someone else? Fucking _again_?! It was ridiculous. In his own grandiosely fucked up way, Father was acting as if the last century had been some sort of juvenile sabbatical for Greed. And now he asked his unruly son to, figuratively speaking, get his shit together, clean his room and get down to have dinner with his siblings.

His mouth almost itched with the need to refuse this insult. Homunculi didn't take well to being humiliated – that all six of them had had in common, for all the uniqueness of their vices and quirks.

Then he angled his gaze and looked down at the rest of them.

Lust was impassive, arms crossed in front of her ample bosom, sizing him up with her cool, amethyst gaze. She seemed calm and collected as always – in that regard she resembled Father the most out of all of them.

Right next to her, as he had done for as long as Greed remembered, stood Gluttony the dimwit. Greed had his doubts as to how aware of what was actually happening his chubby little brother was. If he was to judge from the blank look in his beady eyes, not much.

Pride was nowhere to be seen, but that was to be expected. The old voyeur was probably watching everything from the shadows as he always did; God only knew that there were plenty in the underground lair.

Sloth wasn't around these days, as Greed's dear sister had explained, but if he were, he wouldn't give a damn. Sloth didn't give a damn about anyone or anything.

Wrath, standing there with a hand resting on the hilt of his sword, was the only one Greed had never seen before, and the thought that this one-eyed little upstart had been the one to slice him up into a comatose state back in Dublith – not to mention of butchering his possessions! – made his jaw clench. To add insult to injury, Father had made Wrath the ruler of Amestris. The nerve of this mongrel runt! As if the country was his to rule. Amestris belonged to Greed, just like Creta, and Xing, and Drachma and all the rest. And he damn well didn't intend to just hand it over to a whelp who hadn't been alive for even a third of Greed's life.

Then he looked at Envy. They were watching him with a sour expression on that little face, strands of spiky long hair framing it and falling way past their shoulders.

Not how you pictured a reunion, eh, freakshow?

It was funny, but it wasn't like Greed had pictured it either. Sometimes, back in the Devil's Nest, when he had had a little too much to drink (and it really wasn't easy... nor cheap... to get a Homunculus into such a state), he had entertained fantasies of finding a way to make himself truly immortal, then finally taking out Father so he could take his rightful place.

Which was on top. Naturally.

And after that all his siblings would grovel for his favour, even Pride and Lust. He wouldn't withhold it too harshly, of course.

He wasn't going to be a cruel head of the family.

But not Envy. The little one was feisty. Touchy. Headstrong. Greed knew that the two of them would have come to blows. It would have been a glorious fight. The Ultimate Shield against Envy's endless forms and unorthodox methods of killing they were able to invent on the spot. It was going to be like the good old days.

Greed would have won, of course. Greed always won.

And then they were going to fuck. For weeks. Just like the good old days.

Envy was one of Greed's most prized possessions. Of course, he had never seen the need to spell it out for them. They thought that this whole thing between the two of them, the odd half-adversarial, half-incestuous relationship, was simply a product of Greed's sick, self-contradictory mind – and, driven by their own perversion and internal contradictions, Envy had long ago consented and began to play along. Greed had spent some effort to arrange it to seem so.

It wouldn't do for Envy to find out exactly what he meant when he called them a freak – or some derivative of it. All they heard was an insult to their appearance. Because, really, underneath all their disguises, Envy was downright hideous. They didn't even remotely resemble anything human. Envy knew it, of course. And they hated it. That's why their favorite form was so alluring and pretty.

Not that Greed minded.

But what Envy didn't see, what Greed didn't _want_ them to see, was that – for all their ugliness – they were unique. Sure, every miserable, small, pitiful, shit-filled human that walked the earth was more beautiful than Envy's true form. Every single one, even those that the humans themselves considered unattractive beyond hope. But they were all the same. Boring, and predictable, and really, when you've been around the block for nearly two centuries, you started to see that there was almost a flaw in the design. After a while it became difficult to muster the strength to bother to tell them apart. These days, someone had to be truly exceptional to even catch Greed's eye. Like the chimeras that Wrath killed. Or that loud woman that had kicked the living daylights out of him back in Dublith.

And there was nobody in this world who was more exceptional than Envy. Their nature alone elevated them. There were only six of them – well, alright, seven if you counted the fucking usurper with the mustache and the eyepatch. That was enticing for Greed. Yes, he owned everything, but he didn't really give a shit about most of it. Most of it was not worth the effort and it was enough just to know that it's there and it's yours. But the exquisite things, the finer things... the _unique_ things...

Was there ever anything more unique than an artificial human that looked more like a dragon and could change its form on a whim? And that didn't even factor in their delightfully wicked personality.

Of course, Greed couldn't have Envy finding out about this. It would go to their head, and their ego would become even more difficult to live with.

And then the realization hit him, as the thoughts were chasing inside his skull and he was staring at Envy's sullen face.

"Well, Greed?" Father's voice finally broke him out of his reverie and he looked back at the decrepit figure perched on its white throne.

A part of him still wanted to snarl "Never!" or something like that, but that would mean death. And death would mean an end.

An end to Greed's quest to own the world.

An end of any possibility of revenge against Wrath.

And an end to everything he had experienced with Envy.

Right there and then, Greed decided that he didn't like endings.

* * *

 _So this is it, a different ending of Episode 14. Join me next time when we see the actual face-to-face reunion between the two Sins, this time from Envy's POV._

 _Peace!_


	2. Chapter 2

"Wait, let me get this straight..."

Envy huffed. Stupid Greed. When had he managed to grow a brain so he would accept Father's olive branch, Envy would never know. All he had been good for before was fighting and fucking.

Apparently now he also was very good at asking questions. Annoying, redundant and obtuse questions. The two of them were alone for the first time in a century and he was asking stupid questions about the goddamned plan.

"So this guy... Hughes, right? So he goes and finds out this and that about the plan, so you and Lust just killed him?"

Envy rolled their eyes at their big brother. Greed's brow was furrowed in confusion. What was he so worried about anyways? "Lust got herself shanked in the head," they informed Greed, "Turns out the shitbag was real good at throwing knives. Yeah," they smirked when Greed's eyebrows shot up to his hairline, "So when he went outside to call Mustang for help I pretended to be his wife and I shot him. _Bam!_ " They made a gun-like gesture with their slender fingers, "Right in the fucking lungs," they cackled gleefully. "Wrath said that the guy's brat daughter bawled and squealed like a little animal during his funeral! He was so pissed," Envy laughed again.

Weird. Greed wasn't joining in.

"Get it?" Envy wheedled. It wasn't Greed's fault, he was always a little slow because he was so self-obsessed, "It's funny cause humans are ani..."

"Sweet cheeks," Greed bit out the word angrily, "Shut up, will ya?"

Envy narrowed their purple eyes. "Since when do you think that murdering humans is not funny?" They asked. They didn't even want to know what sort of crap Greed had been involved in during the past hundred years or so. He had lived among the humans, for God's sake! Who knew what sort of dumb ideas and ridiculous notions had taken root inside his handsome, empty head?

"Oh, it's hilarious," Greed deadpanned. "Also it's the stupidest thing you guys could have done. Geez, I turn my back for a mere century and..." He didn't finish and just shook his head, moving slightly away from Envy.

Envy bristled. How dare he?! "Say that again?" they prodded, voice low and dangerous.

And then, in less than a heartbeat, Greed was in their space, bending his bulk down to look Envy dead in the eye. Envy didn't step back. They had spent a century without their brother's proximity, after all. "It's the stupidest thing you could have done," Greed repeated himself, "Literally."

"And what would have Greed the Avaricious done, huh?" Envy grimaced.

"For starters, I wouldn't have panicked!" Greed yelled as he straightened up. "How much this idiot could have uncovered anyway? Probably not much deeper than Ishval. For God's sake, Envy, it's not like there's any record of the old man in Central's archives. But nooo!" He waved his hands around, getting more worked up as he went on, "You had to turn a minor annoyance into a major problem."

Envy snarled and reached up to grab the fur lapels of Greed's little sleeveless jacket into their dainty fists. "Don't you condescend to me!" They shouted, "I took care of it and now everything's fine!"

"Fine? How is it fine?"

"The guy is dead and failed to tell anything to anyone. How is it not?!"

Greed just looked at them and said, very slowly, as if he was speaking to some mentally retarded human child, " _Mustang_ , Envy. We now have a fucking loose end."

"Oh for... Mustang's just some stupid State Alchemist!"

"Yeah," Greed shrugged and his lips curled in disgust, "A State Alchemist whose best friend turned up murdered just when he was calling him about some emergency. Fuck, Envy, I knew you were an ugly freak but I didn't think you're dumb too. Mustang is going to dig into this."

Envy's anger finally boiled over. They have had enough. Greed should have been humbled. He should have groveled to thank Father for the mercy he had shown him. And he _absolutely_ should have groveled before Envy if he wanted to get back into their good graces after disappearing for a fucking _century_ and leaving them!

Instead he was strutting around like it was still the old days, like he still was the one in charge.

Envy punched him. Right in his stupid face. Not with all their superhuman power... but close enough. The fight in Dublith had taken its toll on Greed, and Father had decreed that for now his strength would not be replenished. A penance for Greed's insubordination.

Greed stumbled sideways and fell on one knee. The alchemical red light of his Stone started sizzling around his face and throat as his body began repairing itself. He coughed – or laughed, it was hard to tell – and looked up at Envy with a smirk.

"That's the spirit, freakshow," he mocked.

How could it still sting when Greed insulted them?

With a snarl Envy moved to kick him down so he could learn his proper place, but this time their older brother was ready.

The grey sheen of his Ultimate Shield slithered around his hands and forearms as he gripped Envy's bare leg in his claws. His smirk had turned into a full grin, his shark-like fangs shining triumphantly.

And then, suddenly, Envy found themselves on the hard floor of the labyrinthine tunnels, Greed looming above them. If a passer-by happened to glance their way, it might have looked like a desperate tryst, a ridiculous affair hidden in the comforting underground darkness.

As if. The trysts between Envy and Greed had always been way too passionate and violent and glorious to be contained beneath Central's streets and boulevards.

But that was in the past. Greed had thrown it away, more than a hundred years ago. That was then.

This is now.

"Get off me, stupid!" Envy bit out through clenched teeth as they elongated and sharpened their fingernails into talons, raking them across their brother's face.

Vain dumbass. He still preferred not to cover his head with the Ultimate Shield.

Greed hissed but didn't let them go. He grabbed Envy's arms and pinned them above their head as the cuts on his cheek healed.

There were so many ways for Envy to escape from his clutches. It wasn't like there was a limit of the forms they could assume at any given moment. Envy's talent was constrained only by their imagination, and they were extremely imaginative. At the very least they could take their true form, that of the giant, lumbering green monster, and just brush Greed off like a gnat.

The thought was almost physically repulsive.

Greed already knew they were ugly. No point in showcasing it.

Dammit!

A century later, and they still were panting after Greed's approval. His desire.

Envy looked up and met their big brother's plum-colored eyes.

Oh.

Greed certainly looked full of desire. He looked at them almost... hungrily. It sent a pleasant shiver up Envy's spine. So Greed had missed them too, after all...

Stupid Greed.

Envy brought their face up just as Greed lowered his. When their lips met, it wasn't sweet or gentle.

His kisses had always been possessive and devouring. Predatory. He lightly bit Envy's lower lip and they couldn't help it. They had gone a century without.

A strangled moan escaped them. Which was exactly what Greed apparently wanted because less than a second later his tongue forced its way inside their mouth. Probing. Swirling.

Greed was good at this. Envy couldn't deny it. Nor did they want to, in that moment.

Envy felt his hands, the sharp edges of the Ultimate Shield gone, worming their way under the black skort. Their hips buckled up at him, sparks of arousal dancing wantonly inside.

Finally the kiss was broken and Greed lifted his head a little so he could grin down at them, his eyes gone dark and wild. For a second, Envy allowed themselves to feel content. Their big brother was back and things were right again.

"That's the good stuff, sweet cheeks," he purred, "Human girls have nothing on you."

Envy's insides suddenly felt frozen and raw.

They should have seen it coming. Of course they should have. It's not like monogamy was to be expected from a piece of scum who boasted that he owned the entire world and everything in it.

It's not like he had been faithful before.

But it still hurt.

The excitement and the lust that had filled them just moments ago were completely gone. All they could feel was cold revulsion. They had fallen for his tricks again.

Again. Again, again, he had made a fool out of them, he had humiliated them again.

They didn't even trigger the transformation consciously. The white-hot outrage that filled them was mind-numbing.

Next thing they knew, the walls of the underground tunnel around them were nothing but piles of steaming rubble and Greed's small, human-like body was pinned beneath an enormous green hand.

"I should rip you limb from limb," they growled down at Greed who was staring at them with an incredulous expression on his pale, soot-stained face. Even their voice sounded _wrong_ in their real form, booming and filled with the wailing echoes of the Xerxian souls. God, how Envy hated it.

Almost as much as they hated Greed.

"Ah, don't be like that," Greed breathed out with difficulty because one of Envy's clawed fingers was pressing down on his chest and windpipe. Hard. He gave them what he seemed to think was a charming smile. "We were just getting reacquainted."

With a snarl Envy grabbed him and slammed his body into the rubble, the sickening crash echoing in the ruined tunnel. Greed grunted with pain as his Stone desperately began reversing the internal damage.

Envy forced themselves to assume their preferred form and the tunnel suddenly grew bigger, and the groaning souls that littered their skin like boils were reabsorbed back into their insides.

"You're not worth it," they spat at Greed who was still lying in the rubble, and walked away from him.

They heard him get up but they didn't turn to look at him.

"Hostages," he croaked behind them.

That was odd. What was he on about? They stopped, waiting for him to continue.

"You asked me, remember? What would I have done about Hughes? I would have taken his family hostage. Scare him into silence. Pride could have nabbed them in minutes. Problem solved and no nosy State Alchemists."

"Kidnapping, eh?" Envy finally turned and gave them a glare full of loathing. "The way Wrath tells it, that didn't turn out so well for you with the Elric brats, didn't it?"

And then they left.

* * *

"Do you know what happened to the tunnel on the west end?" Lust asked Envy later that night when they went to visit her at the chimera pens. "It's collapsed. The whole thing."

"No clue," Envy lied, thankful that they couldn't blush involuntarily. "Have Gluttony clear it out," they shrugged.

* * *

 _I DID say they were dysfunctional, after all..._

 _In my mind this is set (obviously, duh!) after Episode 14, but before they tried to frame Ross. So probably around the time the Elrics met Ling?_

 _Peace!_


	3. Chapter 3

"What's _wrong_ with you?!" Envy shrieked hysterically at Wrath's back. "How could you let that bastard go after what he did?! You should have pulled his spine out of his mouth!"

Greed was sitting on the steps, a dark expression on his face. It was bad enough that ever since that mishap in the tunnels a few weeks ago Envy was grudgingly withholding their affections from him, and now Lust was dead.

Gone. A being of such a vast intellect, power and cunning, almost three centuries old and instrumental for so many atrocities in Amestris' history that she was practically a national treasure… destroyed at the hands of a mere human.

And even Father would never be able to bring her back. There was nothing left to bring back.

Greed had not thought that such a thing was even possible. Then again… there's no way that there's no way, right? Greed had spent much of his long life abiding by this credo. It just hadn't occurred to him that such a fundamental law of existence applied to him and his siblings as well. Roy Mustang had proven that they were not untouchable.

Greed hated being wrong. He hated losing things even more.

"Lust," Gluttony sobbed next to him, "He killed Lust..."

"It's not too late to kill him, so get to it!" Envy continued to rant.

"He won't," Greed said flatly. Envy twirled to look at him, their pale face incredulous. "Isn't that right... little brother?"

Wrath turned his head, focusing his ice-cold stare at Greed.

"Cat got your tongue?" Greed's lips curled in disgust.

"We can use Mustang," Wrath insisted calmly. "He's worthless if we kill him, however."

"Figures," Greed sighed and stood up. "Come on, Envy," they looked at him quizzically. "It seems it's up to us."

"What do you think you're doing?" Wrath's eye narrowed at him. For a second Greed entertained the idea of covering his hand with the Ultimate Shield and driving an armored claw into his eye socket.

See if a Homunculus that aged was able to regenerate it, if nothing else.

But no… he had a wounded State Alchemist to kill, a dead sister to avenge, a pissed off lover to appease, and no time to waste on Wrath the Cowardly.

"I'm going to make Mustang beg me for death," he informed the Führer matter-of-factly, then turned to Envy, "While we're at it, I'm gonna need you to tell me who his friends and subordinates are. They're dying too."

Envy grinned cruelly. This was the first time they smiled at him since the tunnel. They stalked closer to him.

"Let's see," Envy crooned, "His right hand, Lieutenant Hawkeye, she's very close to him. It'd be funny to make him watch her die. Who else?" They tapped a slender finger on their delicate chin, "Falman, Breda, Fuery… Havoc's in the hospital with him… Hmm. Armstrong? Maybe Hughes' family?" They shrugged, then they flashed a positively feline smirk up at Greed, bloodlust and the opportunity for revenge finally sparking up their good mood, "Oh, and the Elrics too."

"Fair enough," Greed shrugged. He had a score to settle with the Elric brothers regardless. Might as well do it all in one, "Let's go."

 _You two aren't going anywhere_ , suddenly the whole underground staircase was submerged in darkness.

Shit.

It was never a good idea to forget about Pride.

The darkness moved and slithered around them like a living creature, black tendrils swirling on the walls. The air around the Homunculi suddenly felt heavy and inky, invisible cold fingers brushing against their skin.

 _You will stand down, Greed,_ Pride's soft voice whispered behind him. His instincts screamed at him to turn and face the threatening presence of his eldest sibling, but he knew it would be pointless. Pride was nowhere and everywhere at once. _You will not retaliate against Mustang._

"Why the hell not?" Envy whined somewhere near him, but Pride was all around, drowning all light, casually violating sanity and the laws of nature and Greed couldn't see them. His head was beginning to throb painfully.

 _Because we say so._ You could almost feel the indifference in Pride's disembodied voice. To him the rest of the Homunculi were as inferior as humans seemed to them.

Arrogant bastard.

 _Father grieves for Lust and Mustang will get what's coming to him._ Yeah, right. It sure didn't sound like it.

And then it wasn't so dark anymore because the shadows opened their eyes.

Countless eyes, staring at them from every angle and surface, glowing, malicious and condescending. Envy was apparently startled because for a split second they pressed their lithe body to his before getting a hold of themselves and swaying away, playing it off as if nothing had happened.

Little bitch.

 _There was no need to tell the rest of you until now,_ Greed could see fanged maws grinning at them in the underground gloom, _Lust knew, and so does Wrath. Mustang is the fifth sacrifice._

"What, you mean... for the portal?" Envy sounded astonished.

 _Yes,_ Pride hummed, sadistic pleasure almost dripping from the single word. _So, you see, Lust will not remain unavenged. But you two_ will _bide your time. The Elrics are not to be touched either. Same goes for you, Gluttony_ , Pride added, almost as an afterthought as the shadowy tentacles began to retreat and the unnatural blackness started to ebb away, vanishing like dark mist in unseen corners and cracks on the stony walls.

"Yes, Pride," Gluttony whimpered timidly, but at this point Pride was already gone. Greed could tell by the way his lungs felt lighter and his brain didn't itch with the need to cover himself head to toe with the Ultimate Shield.

Greed took a deep breath and plopped his ass back on the steps.

"Well fuck me," he muttered.

Maybe it would have been better to let the old man kill him, after all. Could Hell truly be worse than all this crap?

"I trust that now you will be more compliant," did he imagine it or was Wrath giving him a smug face?

God, the nerve of this whelp... Just because he got lucky back in Dublith and because he apparently was Pride's toady now.

There was nothing more disgusting than a youngest sibling. They always were the most spoiled brats.

He didn't want to look at the stooge Führer as he passed him by and started climbing back towards the surface world. He worried that he might do something that would only bring trouble. Well, _more_ trouble anyways.

Instead he focused his stare back on Envy.

They still seemed a little sulky, arms crossed in front of their narrow chest, but at this point Greed suspected it was just stubbornness. He knew Lust's death had shaken them, and Pride throwing his weight around hadn't helped any.

Envy needed a distraction. And so did Greed.

"Transform yourself into some less... tacky outfit," he told them, eyeing the cropped top that left their flat midriff bare and the short skirt-thing. "We're going out."

He had had enough of sewers, and darkness, and Wrath, and everyone else.

Greed had an idea, and the sooner he and Envy got to it, the better.

* * *

 _This is an alternate, and slightly longer, version of the scene in Episode 21 where Bradley tells Envy of Mustang's role in the plan and why he didn't kill him back in 19._

 _I wondered initially if I could think of a way to save Lust, since this is an AU anyways, but I decided against it. This story is not about her, and her death is a useful tool for me._


	4. Chapter 4

Central almost managed to look pretty from this up high.

The floodlights that lit up the massive walls of Central High Command in the distance were pillars of white against the overcast night sky, the dim street lamps that lined the streets looked as small as lanterns and the humans that scuttled like ants far below could just as well be non-existent.

To their mild surprise, Envy was having a good time. They leaned back in their chair, legs stretched out and propped in their big brother's lap, and let themselves enjoy the sensation of Greed's cool hands caressing their bare calves and massaging their small feet.

It had been an eventful evening. A little relaxation was in order.

"I must admit," they drawled at Greed, instantly capturing his attention, "I am a little impressed."

He flashed them a sharp smile, deft, strong fingers working their wonders.

"All in a day's work, sweet cheeks," he said, sounding awfully pleased with himself.

But, then again, he had earned that right. At least for tonight.

* * *

When they had left the lair the sun had still been high in sky, beating down on Central in a striking contrast with the dark mood that had gripped both of them.

Neither of them had liked being denied vengeance.

Neither of them had had a choice.

After they had emerged from below Central High Command, Greed had quickly appropriated a car. The sleek vehicle no doubt belonged to some human, likely one of the many big shots in the military, but such details meant little to their older brother. Forcing his way inside and taking off without the keys for the ignition had seemed like a child's play for him. And then the two Homunculi were out of there, leaving only a trail of smoke and the smell of burnt tires.

Greed had told them not to assume an entirely new disguise and so they had just modified their usual outfit. The skort and the cropped top had been melded into an elegant black dress that reached down to just above their knees and their feet had been tucked into fashionable heels. Envy had removed their headband and had styled their wild hair into something more manageable and inconspicuous, and had also added just a touch of feminine softness to their otherwise perfectly androgynous appearance, but they were still more or less recognizable in their favorite form.

Greed had leered at them unrepentantly as he drove them around Central.

Envy had tried not to enjoy feeling the weight of their brother's heated stare. They were still cross with him, and their mood was still sour because of Lust. Envy remembered what Greed had told them, how killing Hughes had been a mistake because it had shaken Mustang into action… and a part of them could not deny that this had turned out true.

Envy's attempt to clean up the mess and placate the Flame Alchemist by framing Maria Ross for the death of the posthumously promoted Brigadier General had backfired spectacularly and now Lust was dead.

Because of them.

And if _that_ wasn't bad enough, Father and Pride had outright ordered them not to take any action. Just sit there, mind their own business and wait it out.

No wonder that Greed was riled up and wanted out of the stifling dark of the underground lair.

What was odd that they would have expected him to have some biting remark, something snippy and cruel to say that would remind them that he was right and they had been wrong, and that they were partly to blame for Lust's destruction.

Instead he was staring at them like he considered stopping the car somewhere away from prying eyes and having his way with them right there and then.

It was obscene and bizarre, and vexing, and it was making them all nice and hard under the silky dress.

It always felt good to be wanted.

But they still hadn't forgotten how he had humiliated them with his casual remark about his own infidelity. A century ago this had happened with disgusting regularity. He would seduce human women on the side, and Envy would inevitably find out and then those women turned up slaughtered… if they turned up at all. Murdering humans who Greed the Avaricious considered his possessions was almost as insulting to him as being on the receiving end of Greed's adultery was for Envy the Jealous. At the end nobody derived any pleasure from this. Greed was pissed off because Envy kept killing his whores, Envy was pissed off because by being with his whores Greed kept making a fool of them, and Greed's whores kept getting murdered so it had been no fun all around.

Envy knew on some level that it couldn't be helped. Greed was made a certain way, and so was Envy. It was in his nature to be sexually rapacious just like it was in Envy's to be effortlessly provoked into fits of jealousy and possessiveness.

That's how their Father had wanted them to be.

It didn't make it any easier but, again, there wasn't a whole lot they could do about it either. Greed couldn't change his ways any more than the wolf could swear off from devouring the sheep.

In a sick way, when Greed left, it had almost been like a vacation for Envy. Yes, it meant loneliness and for the most part they had missed him and had been angered… but it had also meant a century of relative emotional peace. At least, without Greed, when Envy killed humans they did it for their own amusement or on Father's orders, not out of the bitterness of a neglected lover.

Even with all that in mind, however, they still couldn't bring themselves to let him off the hook.

Not yet.

"Watch the road," they had reprimanded him with a smirk instead.

* * *

The sky had turned purple and the sun had set when Greed had finally stopped the car.

"I like this one," he had nodded to a building across the street.

Huh?

Envy had leaned over the driver's seat and Greed's broad chest to take a look.

They were looking at the "Crown" hotel. Envy knew it was a fancy place. Rich humans frequented it, and it was nicely built. In recent decades, even after Ishval, Amestris had amassed quite the wealth thanks to its tendency of annexing neighboring nations and winning wars. Wrath was willing to let some of it trickle down and make its way to the people of this country. Eventually, it made their operations smoother, or so he claimed. "Crown" was one of the places for those humans who had managed to take advantage of the trickle over the generations.

It was not a place for common riffraff, was what Envy could pretty much summarize.

But what had Greed wanted with it?

His violet eyes glinted predatorily in the dusk as he gazed at the colorful lights that graced the casino adjoined to the hotel.

They ended up having to transform their outfit once more, draping themselves into a black evening gown, not dissimilar to the one Lust had worn, but not nearly as revealing since Envy didn't see it fit to grow a pair of huge breasts, nor had Greed requested it.

He, on the other hand, simply strode into the casino with just his usual clothes, the sleeveless jacket with the lapels of white fur, the black leather pants and the elegant pointy shoes. His gait had been absurdly confident and one of his muscular arms lay draped across Envy's narrow waist.

The looks of shock on the faces of the dumb, heavily perfumed humans were priceless.

What happened after was still a blur of human gaudiness for Envy, even hours later.

The best analogy they could have come up with if asked was that the "Crown" casino was like a temple, and Greed was its god.

It was almost like he was everywhere at once, doing and saying things that Envy understood only tangentially. But what they knew was that he had been the very image of charisma that night, charisma strengthened by the absolute conviction that he knew _exactly_ what he was doing… unlike anyone else there, be it Envy or the guests and staff alike.

By the time Greed had started to play an obnoxiously tedious card game against one of the dealers, a small crowd had formed around, ooh-ing and ahh-ing every time Greed managed to pull off something that apparently was considered impressive in those circles. Envy was not big on human proximity, especially in groups, but Greed was soaking it all in, lips curved in a crooked smile as he won round after round against the hapless bug of a human.

His ego must have been going through the roof.

This had been when Envy, as they stood there like a black-clad concubine on his arm, had realized that Greed had started to amass a tiny fortune.

Was that it? He was in a bad mood and so he had decided to come here and indulge in his love for money?

How… disappointingly mundane.

Only Greed didn't stop. He kept playing.

And he kept winning.

And didn't that mean that the casino kept losing?

When the humans finally decided to do something about it, Greed had already torn his way through the baccarat and the blackjack, and the roulette. Currently he was residing at the craps table, a mountain of brightly colored coin-like things the humans called "chips" piled before him. The buzzing murmur of the onlookers was nearly suffocating at this point.

He had shaken a palm full of dice in front of Envy's face.

"Here," he had said, "Blow on them for luck, sweetheart," his grin had been almost manic but his eyes, strangely, were so calm they seemed serene.

Envy had narrowed their purple gaze at him above the glass of martini he had ordered on their behalf.

Things weren't adding up. Greed was putting on a good front, and Envy did not doubt that he had the humans fooled, but he was not a shapeshifting master of disguise.

Envy was.

And they could tell that their big brother was playing a role. A cocky stranger who had an incredible stroke of luck and was soon lost in the warm haze of sudden gambling addiction. The question was… why? Their curiosity was piqued.

So they played along, leaning to gently do as they were bid, watching Greed right in the eyes.

The dice were rolled. Greed won. Again.

And then, as the dealer was busy shoveling another mound of chips towards Greed, a few tall humans dressed in dark suits elbowed their way in, surrounded them and demanded to be followed.

To Envy's surprise Greed had pretended to be confused and eagerly agreed, grabbing Envy's hand and dragging them along as he began asking the human thugs what the problem was.

The problem was clear even to Envy, with all their inexperience with casinos. Greed had won far too much for his own good. They either suspected some sort of foul play, or were just fed up with losing money, petty humans as they were. This was going to turn ugly soon. There was no way that Greed hadn't realized it.

Which meant that he _wanted_ it to happen. And he _wanted_ Envy to be with him when it did.

The humans led them out of the casino's inner entrance and into the hotel's lobby, and from there all of them promptly mounted a lift and ascended up, towards the last floor of the "Crown".

It was almost surreal for Envy. And a little funny. As if the humans and the Homunculi were acting out two completely different scripts whilst being on the same stage. The body language and the repulsive faces of the humans suggested that they expected fear and panic. Envy felt no worry about their own safety whatsoever. They could dispatch the five burly humans with one hand while suppressing a yawn with the other. Likewise, as soon as he had left the casino Greed had dropped the simpleton act and was now simply leaning casually against the wall of the lift. He seemed content.

If Envy was to guess, it was because those thugs were leading them exactly where he wanted to go.

Which, apparently, had been the personal office of the human who was in charge of the hotel and the casino below.

The guy was dressed in a dapper suit and elegant shoes, but in Envy's opinion he seemed just as sleazy and slimy as every other human.

The twin doors of the office had been shut behind them and the five thugs formed a loose half-circle around the two Homunculi. No doubt still expecting that intimidation was in order.

And it was. Just not in the ways they thought.

The rich human, still sitting behind his desk (Wrath's was bigger, Envy noticed with amusement), had opened his mouth, just itching to go into a threatening monologue against the man who had gotten too lucky for his own good and his pretty squeeze, but Greed had no patience for such nonsense.

"You the one who owns this joint?" he had interrupted him immediately, voice all smoothness and insolence.

"Better speak with more respect," one of the thugs had grumbled, "You're in deep enough shit alr-"

This was when Greed had vaulted over the desk, his Ultimate Shield kicking in, and grabbed the rich guy by the throat.

Envy had twirled around, their slender arms turning into curved steel blades and had started to carve their way through the five goons with inhuman speed.

It took less than a minute.

The last human managed to pull out a handgun and take a shot at Greed's back before Envy leapt over the corpse of his friend and skewered him through the ribs, their arm-blade pushing into flesh and bone and blood until they reached his heart. The bullet simply ricocheted off the Ultimate Shield with a metallic clang and shattered an expensive-looking vase.

"So," Greed had purred, the rich human whimpering in his hold. His back was against the wall and his legs kicked feebly and pitifully as he dangled in Greed's grip. "I believe I asked you a question, little man."

"What are you?!" Envy could see him shaking like a leaf, hands scratching uselessly against the Ultimate Shield. "What do you want?"

"I want everything," Greed's grin looked so sinister when his head was covered in the carbon armor that Envy, fingers wet with human blood, felt a wave of arousal washing inside. "But for now I'll settle for this nice hotel of yours."

"M-monsters... I'll... I'll tell everyone! I'll kill you! I'll go to the Führer, I'll..."

"Oh really?" Envy had cut into the conversation as they took a step towards Greed and the struggling human. A flash of red light sizzled all over their body and suddenly they looked like an identical twin of the last thug they killed. "And who, pray tell," they took another step and another face. This time of Wrath's, all stoic and regal in his uniform, "Who will ever believe you?" When they reached Greed they transformed again, and now the dumbass was staring at his own sleazy mug.

His body had decided that this was the best time to relieve its bladder and soil the expensive suit.

Detestable humans.

Greed let out a disgusted grunt and just dropped the shitstain on the floor.

* * *

From there it went easier.

It was really interesting how swiftly humans could act when the fear was savage enough. Envy and Greed had made a complete mockery of everything this creature knew about the world and the laws of nature. His mind had been numb with such utter confusion that he had been practically a vegetable at first, and so Envy had had to take a look around the office, and when they noticed a framed photograph of a woman with a trio of snotty children, they knew they had what they needed to snap the human out of it.

"You better do as we say," they drawled and took the appearance of the smallest child, just like she looked in the photo, "Or next time we'll meet you at your house."

That shocked him into action well enough and after a late night phone call and less than two hours, the three of them went into an adjacent room on the same floor where the human's solicitor had arrived to take care of all paperwork that transferred ownership of the "Crown" hotel to Greed.

And just like that, an evening in the casino and five dead humans later, Greed had simply taken this human's livelihood away. Almost as easily as snapping his fingers.

It reminded Envy of the times before he left and, despite themselves, they realized they wanted him tonight and screw everything else.

Especially Greed. Though not in the same way.

Envy didn't forget to make a quick call to Wrath's private line at his office – it was barely after midnight so he was still at work, pretending to be the industrious King Bradley, and had him send Gluttony over through the sewers so he could have a snack and get rid of the bodies of the humans they killed.

They were somewhat evasive on what had actually happened and just suggested it had been a way to blow off steam because of Lust.

It wasn't really a lie.

Wrath didn't sound terribly pleased, and Envy suspected that Greed was going to get an earful from Father eventually, but tonight life was fun.

And then, it was time for the two Hominculi to retire in the penthouse of Greed's new hotel.

Now they were sitting together on the outrageously big balcony overlooking the city below, sipping millions worth of cenz in expensive champagne, enjoying the sight and each other's company.

Central almost managed to look pretty from this up high.

* * *

 _I felt like this is something that Greed would do, both as a way to blow off some steam and as a subtle middle finger to his father and the more controlling siblings, demonstrating that he'll still do whatever he wants despite being ordered around. The world is his oyster, after all. Realistically speaking, Bradley would probably clean up the mess somehow in a day or two, but Greed has made his point and has had his fun._

 _Also, it's not based in any way of an already existing scene so that gave me some freedom._

 _Things will pick up next time when Envy and Greed will have to face Ed, Al and Ling as the heroes make their first appearance in this story!_

 _Peace!_


	5. Chapter 5

"Make it stop," Greed growled, his voice thick and slurred from sleep.

He heard Envy grunt, arm batting around blindly and knocking stuff off the nightstand before they finally got a hold of the blaring telephone.

"What?" They didn't sound pleased to be awoken from their slumber too, apparently. "Ugh... alright... put 'em through." There was a pause in which Greed heard Envy taking a deep breath and sitting up in the king size bed. Just when he thought he might be able to lull himself back to oblivion, the conversation picked up again.

"Yeah," Envy said. Then a pause. "Yeah. Okay." Another pause. "What? _How_?!" This time the pause was longer. "Wait, wait, slow down. There's a bunch of guys from Xing now? What the actual fuck, Wrath?"

Ah, of course. That explained it all.

"Well don't ask me. What would they want with Gluttony?" Envy hummed for a moment and Greed finally accepted that sleep was not in the cards anymore so, resigned, he opened his eyes and rolled to look at Envy.

They were in their favorite form, as usual, and Greed decided that it looked especially captivating when they were freshly roused, sitting there all naked and covered only partially in a silky black sheet, youthful little face scrunched up testily and their long hair even wilder than usual. Greed felt himself getting hard just looking at Envy. The bedroom of "Crown"'s penthouse smelled of sex and expensive alcohol gone stale from last night.

To Greed that was pretty much an aphrodisiac.

Envy didn't notice the way he was eating them up with his stare, or they didn't care.

Apparently Wrath had their attention now. The fucking runt.

"Ugh, of course he is," Envy huffed indignantly. "Well alright then," they sighed. "Greed and I will figure something out," they blew a dangling strand of dark hair off their face, "Yeah, yeah, we got a car. Ye _p_ ," they popped their thin lips. "Whose was it, by... oh, General Raven?" They cackled. "The guy's a sycophant, you'll handle him. Yeah, okay. We'll get Gluttony back in no time."

Envy hung the phone up and fell on the bed with a dramatic groan, not caring that the back of their head hit Greed right in the stomach and he grunted in pain. Would have been funny if he had had the Ultimate Shield up, teach the little brat a lesson.

"So, who was it?" he asked wryly, a hand creeping down to play with Envy's hair.

"Very funny," they rolled their eyes up at him. "Gluttony's gotten in trouble. Wrath says we gotta rescue him."

"Yeah, no, that's not happening," Greed was going to nip this in the bud. "I'm not his errand boy."

"What's with you and him anyways?" Envy sounded mildly annoyed.

"You mean besides him getting lucky in _one_ fight and killing my possessions?"

"Ugh, you and your possessions crap..." Envy suddenly sat up, scrutinizing him under their purple gaze. "Well, Gluttony is your brother, isn't he? And Lust was your sister?"

Greed frowned, "What has Lust got to do with this?"

"Oh, nothing much," Envy shrugged. "Except that the guy who's got Gluttony? Yeah, same shitbag who killed Lust. That's right," Envy laughed at him when his eyes widened and a ferocious snarl bared his fangs. "Apparently Mustang's gunning for us now. Wrath said he used some Xingese goons to abduct Gluttony," they leaned over Greed's torso, "Are you gonna let him walk all over us just because you're still sore about some small spat and a gang of chimeras?" Envy got even closer, lips almost touching his, "The Greed I know, the Greed who had the balls to stand up to Father for a century, the Greed who..." they purred, rubbing their small nose on his and smiling wickedly against his suddenly dry mouth, "... _fucked me_ halfway into a coma last night... would never let some upjumped alchemist get away with any of this... Is that Greed here and now?" He felt a dainty hand cupping his stiff bulge through the sheets, "Or does little old me has to go and save the fat idiot all by myself?"

* * *

A few hours later, as he was driving down a muddy road surrounded by miles upon miles of fucking forest, Greed decided that his cock was not that good at making decisions.

Envy had played him like a fiddle.

Which didn't change the fact that they had a point.

This Roy Mustang was getting on his nerves. He hadn't even met the guy yet, but once the old man was done with him Greed was gonna miss the Flame Alchemist like a toothache.

What a pity that he was not allowed to kill their precious sacrifices. He was almost tempted to just fuck it all, murder the shit out of Mustang and let Father find another candidate. It's not like there weren't any other State Alchemists around.

Nah.

Play it cool for now. Plenty of chances later.

"Relax, stupid," Envy snickered next to him, "You're gonna break the steering wheel."

"I don't like it when people take my stuff," Greed grumbled.

"I didn't know you cared so much about Gluttony."

"I don't give a shit about Gluttony," Greed took the incoming turn sharply and angrily. This car was not made for the woods and it showed. "It's a matter of principle."

"That's the spirit," Envy cackled, then they leaned forward to take a better look at the road and animatedly yelled, "Here! Turn right here!"

"Are you sure this time?" Greed griped but did as Envy wanted all the same.

It wasn't like he had a better idea.

By the time the two Homunculi left "Crown", the afternoon was well on its way. Apparently, after a couple of days and nights filled with nothing but fun and fucking, Greed and Envy had managed to sleep through some impressive crap.

Wrath and Gluttony had been ambushed by Mustang's new Xingese buddies... and apparently the fight hadn't been nearly as one-sided as it might have been expected. At the same time the Elric brats had faced some Ishvalan serial killer who targeted State Alchemists (a long story for another time, Envy claimed). Somehow it had all gotten mixed up or something and it had ended with Gluttony captured by Mustang's woman and the new guys.

Greed supposed that you had to have been there to make sense of it because otherwise it sounded borderline absurd. In any case, Wrath had been sure that the Flame Alchemist was the mastermind behind the whole thing.

The problem was that nobody was sure _where_ they had taken Gluttony.

The best Wrath's spies and lapdogs' intel – if you could even call it that – could accomplish was point them at a rough direction in the outskirts of Central.

Like that was any help.

It was already dark and they still had made no progress to speak of. There was no way to just stumble upon them by chance in the middle of a goddamned forest, right?

"There!" Envy cried, "See?"

Well what do you know. There's no way that there's no way.

Tire tracks in the mud. Going deeper into the woods.

Greed grinned as his foot pushed on the gas.

* * *

When they saw the cabin shit was already going down. Half of the house was _missing_. Just gone. Gluttony's work, most like.

Just as they got to the meadow another car was screeching off and roared away. Greed blinked in confusion as the two vehicles drove past each other. An old fellow with a grumpy expression was behind the wheel, next to him was a tall black-haired man who looked to be in pain, and in the back sat a blonde woman with a grim face. She seemed to be holding a person who was laying on the seat next to her, but they were gone before he could spot any further details. The last Greed saw of them was how the black-haired man craned his upper body through the window to look back at them with narrowed eyes as their vehicle sped off in the direction Greed and Envy had come through.

"That was Mustang!" Envy exclaimed.

"Question is, where is Gluttony..." Greed murmured as he debated internally whether to make a turn and go in pursuit. If they were running away, then Gluttony was probably alive and well, after all.

Then a section of the forest around them simply imploded and disappeared with an alchemical crackle and a whoosh as if even the air was suddenly sucked in and an inhuman screech echoed into the night.

"MUSTAAAAAAANG!"

"Nevermind," Greed said nonchalantly and hit the brake.

They got out and ran into the freshly made clearing and, sure enough, there was Gluttony.

Oh crap.

He had lost control over the false Gate inside his belly. The Eye was spinning madly in its orbit, and a gruesome maw of separated ribs gaped around a black hole of such frantic voraciousness that it was a disservice to call it mere hunger.

Nothing good ever came of this sight.

Greed's little brother was surrounded by the Elrics and a slim boy that seemed Xingese and held a curved sword. He was the first to spot the new arrivals.

"And just who are you two? I've sensed this multiplicity before..." His slanty eyes squinted at them as the alchemist brothers focused their attention on the new arrivals. "How many people do you have inside you, Homunculi?"

What? These guys could _sense_ them now? What else had Greed slept through?

"The big one's called Greed," Fullmetal said gruffly, his amber eyes narrowed and hostile. "The girly one's Envy, I think."

"I see the theme now," the Xingese boy smirked as he casually lifted his sword up. He was brave. Greed could appreciate an attitude like this.

Envy laughed next to him, "Nice one, Fullmetal Pipsqueak," they crowed, "You look a little worse for wear since the laboratory, though." And since Dublith too. The kid had lost his red coat and his blonde head was wrapped in a dirty bandage. Apparently the fight against the Ishvalan earlier today had not been kind to him.

But not enough to make him any less of a short fuse because suddenly he rushed forward at Envy, all fury and unintelligible yelling.

"Brother, no!" the armor-kid shouted.

Too late.

"Dammit!" Fullmetal yelled, hilariously pissed off beyond reason, "I told you before, DON'T CALL ME THAT!"

He tried to land a running punch at Envy but they nimbly dodged it and spun away. And before the kid could get his bearings, Greed suddenly reached and grabbed his automail arm, twisting it behind Fullmetal's back with a painful metallic creak. Locking the shoulder joint from behind, Greed casually applied enough pressure to make the hotheaded boy cry out.

"Ed!" the Xingese guy moved to aid him but Gluttony swatted him away and he crashed into the nearby bushes.

"I'd like to see you perform a transmutation now," Greed gloated as he twisted Fullmetal's wrist further, making it absolutely impossible for the boy to reach back and clap his palms together, "Now," he said in a louder voice, "I want everyone to relax and not do anything stupid like shorty over here," the blonde boy trashed angrily in his grip but it was no use, Greed had him well in hand, "We're only here to get Gluttony so let's go and call it a day, eh?"

"Greed, Envy," the fat fuck sounded confused like a child, "Mustang was here, Mustang killed Lust, I…"

"You don't get to eat Mustang," Envy informed him irritably, " _Or_ the Elrics, so just shut up and come along now."

Exactly as Envy said this, Fullmetal decided to smash his head into Greed's chin.

Damn, what was this kid's head made of? Rocks?

Greed's vision swam and he stumbled backwards, involuntarily releasing the young alchemist from the arm lock.

"So you really aren't allowed to kill us, huh?" Greed didn't see it fit to deign that with an answer as he shook his head to clear it up. "Ling!" He heard Fullmetal shout and looked up as the Xingese kid emerged from the bushes. "I know how to take care of this moron, you and Al get Envy and Gluttony!"

He raised his hands to make the ring and trigger a transmutation that no doubt promised nothing good, but the Homunculi were faster than him. Or any other human, for that matter.

Edward Elric had indeed figured out a way to bypass the Ultimate Shield through some clever, cowardly alchemy tricks last time they fought, back in Dublith. It wasn't _fatal_ for Greed as he could still come back from any injury he sustained, but it made progress annoyingly slow. It was safe to assume that his meek brother was in on it by now as well.

But the kid from Xing wasn't. He wasn't even an alchemist since he needed a sword to fight.

So, without even needing to speak, Greed and Envy dove in past each other just as Fullmetal was pressing his hands to the ground and the earth rumbled as a portion of it was forcibly transmuted into a wall of mud that separated the clearing in two.

Envy tackled Fullmetal down as his armored brother rushed at Gluttony, and that was the last Greed saw of them as he lunged toward the Xingese kid on the other side of the earthen wall, clawed hands and forearms covered in the shiny Ultimate Shield.

"So who are you, kiddo?" Greed sneered at the boy as he swiped almost playfully at him. He swung his body out of the way and answered with a quick slash of his sword that clanged uselessly against the Ultimate Shield when Greed blocked the blow with his forearm.

"You're talking to Ling Yao, future Emperor of Xing, Homunculus," Greed swiftly evaded a slash aimed at his chest by bending his waist back before strafing to the left and trying to swipe again at his opponent's sword arm but his armored claws met the flat of the blade as Ling made a deft parry. "And I'm not a _kiddo._ "

"Oh, really?" Greed suddenly rushed under the swing that came at his head, getting in Ling's space and landing a light kick against the boy's stomach that sent him staggered back, his footing lost. "I've never killed a prince before," he shrugged casually before pouncing towards Ling, claws stretched forth and ready to rend.

After all, Mustang and the Elrics might be untouchable... _for now_... but nobody had said anything about the Xingese. He didn't even need the full-on Ultimate Shield to take this bozo on.

And it made the fight more fun.

But as it turned out, he was in for a surprise when the princeling rolled backwards, feet over head, and thrust his sword forth as he crouched back up.

Pain erupted in Greed's middle as his own momentum impaled him on Ling's blade.

Damn, the kid was not half bad.

Red lightning crackling and sizzling around the wound, Greed grunted and grabbed the sword in one hand, holding it and its wielder in place. "So I take it you're the one who foiled Wrath, huh?" He could feel blood dripping down his chin and his stomach felt like it was burning, but he managed to grab at Ling's throat with his other hand, "That alone makes me like you, kid, but you should really stop with this nonsense and give up."

The stubborn jackass let the sword go instead, still sticking out of Greed's body, somehow batted the hand that was flying at his throat away and kicked his jaw up with a backflip that sent him safely off from Greed's reach. Letting out a loud "Oooof!" Greed fell on the ground.

That's it, fuck it. As soon as he got that fucking sword out of his belly Greed was covering all of himself up with the Ultimate Shield, thrill and fair fighting be damned, and ripping Ling Yao apart.

"You're the third Homunculus I have fought today, Greed," the kid said as Greed slowly sat up, purple eyes angry and murderous now. "And you all make the same mistake by underestimating humans."

"Yeah, well, call it an occupational hazard," Greed groused, managing to finally get the Xingese blade out and snapped the steel in two with his armored claws as his wound healed itself. "But I'm done playing, kiddo."

He got up and let the carbon armor wash over his whole body with an alchemical gleam.

Just as he was ready to end Ling and go to collect Envy and Gluttony on the other side of the barricade that Fullmetal had transmuted, the large, metal form of Alphonse Elric burst flying out of the earthen wall and he crashed right into Greed.

The two tumbled down in a tangle of armored limbs and Greed heard the other Elric frantically cry out, "Al?! Are you okay?"

"Yes, brother," the child-like voice gave Greed the creeps just like it had back in Dublith when it echoed in the hollow metal suit, but his smidgen of sympathy for the boy was cut short when he felt a hard elbow knocking into his face. The blow was mostly absorbed by the Ultimate Shield, but it was still annoying.

Greed growled and threw Alphonse off just in time to see Envy leaping through the hole the armored boy had unintentionally made with his body. They rushed past Ling's side and swept the kid's leg from under him with a contemptuous cackle.

He dropped on the ground and even though he immediately struggled to stand on one knee, Greed saw that Ling was right in the sights of Gluttony's false Gate on the other side of the wall.

"GO FOR IT, GLUTTONY!" Envy shouted triumphantly, excited that someone was gonna die tonight.

"Ling!" Fullmetal vaulted through the hole as well and shoved his Xingese buddy out of the way...

... Only now _he_ was the one standing where he really shouldn't have.

Envy moved first, desperately trying to push the human sacrifice away.

Greed was there only a fraction of a second later, only his target wasn't Fullmetal. Envy, the hotheaded little idiot, was putting themselves in danger too.

Unacceptable. Greed had no idea if a Homunculus was going to die if Gluttony devoured them, but he had no intention of waiting to see. Not after Lust.

He reached forward as he jumped towards Envy. Just a few more inches...

"Brother!" He heard Alphonse yell.

Too late.

Too fucking late.

Time seemingly stopped and all Greed could hear was the booming whoosh of imploding air as Envy and Edward were both caught in the blast from the false Gate.

Then the Eye fixed on him too and suddenly there was only blackness.

* * *

 _This is, of course, based on the fight scene in Episode 24, only this time with Greed's involvement and from a villanous POV._

 _In this AU Ling was not swallowed by Gluttony... but Greed was, and this will make for a different dynamic inside Gluttony's belly where Ed will be on his own with Greed and Envy._


	6. Chapter 6

Greed opened his eyes after the third slap Envy delivered to his face.

"I'm awake, stop it," he grumbled at them and struggled to sit up, his mouth twisted in a perplexed grimace as he looked around. "What the...?"

Envy sighed. They had already gone through all this as Greed's body slumbered and regenerated, and they had no particular desire to watch the whole process unfold again.

First came confusion.

"We're..."

Yep, there it was.

"Inside Gluttony's stomach, yeah," Envy supplied nonchalantly.

Greed stood on shaky legs and frowned when he heard the wet splash as his shoes made contact with the endless lake of...

"Is that _blood_?" Ah, their big brother was already at the revulsion stage. He started looking around, his expression a precious mixture of disgust and awe.

Envy could imagine how he felt. It was one thing to know _what_ Gluttony truly was. The experience of witnessing it, of _being here_ was altogether completely different.

What had struck Envy the most was not the perpetual darkness that wasn't black and merciful enough to hide the blood and the remains of Gluttony's feasts under a comforting blanket of complete blindness. It wasn't the ever-present stench of rot either.

It was the silence.

There was no such silence in nature. Even when it was seemingly quiet, the world was still bursting with life and although the humans noticed only a small fragment of it at any given time, they were always englufed in it, inside and out.

But this place held no life at all and it wasn't simply... quiet. It was the utter absence of sound. Literally the only noises here were the ones the two of them could produce. The small splashes Greed was making as he turned around flabbergasted illustrated it pretty well.

Envy couldn't deny that it was unnerving. They shot a look at Greed.

Here it comes...

"How do we get out?"

They supposed that it was normal for the mind to jump straight to the need for escape back into the world of the living. It had been one of their first reactions too when they woke up next to Greed's body. But...

"You know as well as I do that we can't. There is no way out," they raised a finger when Greed immediately opened his mouth to argue, "And don't even start with the _there's no way that there's no way_ catchphrase."

"You're taking this far too calmly," Greed narrowed his eyes at them.

"I did all my panicking while you were still unconscious," Envy said wryly and shrugged. "Would it make you feel better if I started flailing around and crying for you to save me?"

Greed snorted and shook his head. He sat down on an ancient boulder whose lower half was submerged into the lake of blood. It looked like it had been a part of Xerxesian building centuries ago; Envy had noticed a few similar ruins scattered around while they waited for Greed to wake up.

"This is bad, sweet cheeks," Greed muttered rubbing the back of his head.

"No argument there, but there's nothing we can do," Envy shrugged again. It was funny, but there was some comfort in the inevitable. Fretting about the worst was useless when the worst had already happened. You could just drop the existential terror and move on, so to speak. Envy vaguely wondered if humans ever thought of it like this as they breathed their last. Ugh. Fucking humans... "It's all the pipsqueak's fault anyway."

Greed sharply looked up at them from his seat and Envy was startled to see that his plum-colored eyes were shining angrily.

"Bullshit," his lips revealed his shark-like fangs. "If you hadn't gone to save him, we could both have been back in the hotel by now."

 _That_ caught Envy by surprise. What right did he have to blame them?

They stalked closer to him, their ire rising with each step. "I couldn't let him die, you know that!" Envy cried, "Father needs him for the Promised Day!"

"Oh please, who _cares_ what the old man needs?" Greed spat out.

"I guess it's true, then," Envy looked down at him with contempt.

"What is?" Greed asked without even trying to hide his annoyance.

"Just a thing I've heard humans say. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. You're still on that one-man pissing contest against him, aren't you?" Envy shook their head lightly, "You know, I thought you must have grown some common sense when you took his offer but you're still the selfish asshole you've always have been, right?"

" _I'm_ selfish?!" Greed's eyes widened in offense. "I wouldn't even be here if I hadn't _tried to get you out of the way, you dumb freak!_ "

Much like the last time they fought, Envy needed only that one insult, the one word that – underneath his possessive touches and his flirty smiles – reminded them just how disgusting Greed really thought they were. As their fist flew out and smashed against his face, Envy couldn't help but wonder if Greed would piss them off enough to make them assume their true form and finally put an end to his games and his insolence.

They were going to spend the rest of eternity here, in the non-reality of the false Gate of Truth, until even their Philosopher's Stones were eventually exhausted, so would it really matter if they perished at each other's throats instead?

However, unlike the last time they fought, Greed was not amused and did not turn the fight into a prelude towards intimacy. Not that Envy wanted him to.

He took the punch and snarled, his normally pale face reddened by anger.

Then he hit Envy back.

Cursing the pain that blossomed in their cheek when he backhanded them, they staggered away from Greed, splashing through the blood, but their favorite form was too petite. They were still in their big brother's reach.

A muscular arm shot forward and gripped Envy's slender throat.

"You little idiot," Greed growled, "Doing the old man's bidding all your life until it got you killed, and me with you. He doesn't give a shit about you, Envy, about any of us."

"Oh, that's rich coming from _you_ ," they panted as they dug the fingernails on one hand into Greed's forearm. He was so pissed that he had forgotten to use the Ultimate Shield. "Like _you_ care," in this body they were smaller than him, but so much more nimble. Envy's leg shot up and their foot met Greed's kneecap forcing him to grunt in pain and release them from his hold. "You fucked off on your own and never looked back, and now _you're_ preaching about Father? Give me a break!"

Greed lunged towards them and grabbed Envy's torso in his big arms, spinning them in the air and roughly slamming their body into the stone slab where he sat moments ago. They felt their spine jolt as their Stone immediately began healing them back up.

Envy struggled against him, but Greed just put a hand around the lower half of their face and squeezed, bringing his own face down to theirs.

"You think I didn't want to take you with me?" He asked, sharp teeth gritting. "He might have made you, but you're _mine_ , Envy," Greed's gaze burned into theirs, purple and furious. "You belong to me, you always have. Never forget that, freak," he hissed at them, his breath tickling their skin.

And then, as suddenly as he had overpowered them, Greed removed his hand from Envy's face and took a few steps back.

"You never would have come with me," he sighed. He sounded... tired. Greed never sounded tired. "You're mine and yet you always did what he wanted you to do. If I had approached you, offered you the way out, you would have just turned me in to Pride and the old man. And don't even think of pretending that it's not true," for a second the anger crept back into Greed's voice. "So take a good long look around, and see what being faithful to _Dad_ brought you."

Envy sat up on the piece of the Xerxesian ruins and stared at Greed, lips parted silently in confusion.

It shouldn't have made any difference.

But it did.

As a rule, Greed avoided lying. And it was difficult to lie to Envy anyways, because there were none more adept at it than them. Their very apperance was a lie, after all. So they knew that what he just said must have been the truth.

He had wanted to take them with him.

He hadn't, and the possessive way he spoke, as if Envy was nothing but a property of his, was unpleasant, and he was right, they would have turned on him so Father could sort him out and things could go on as they had before, and it really shouldn't have made a difference.

And yet it did.

All Envy had ever wanted was to be wanted.

It was why they hated humans so much. Humans had it so _easy_. All Envy had was a cold, distant father and siblings who tolerated them but nothing more. The Homunculi were more like a gang than a family. And the filthy humans who were not worthy to even lick Envy's feet enjoyed so much more just by the virtue of being... humans.

It was why they had taken such a delight in killing Maes Hughes, the man with the perfect life who had it all, a loving spouse, loyal friends and an adoring brat of a kid. Shooting Hughes and listening to his last words about a family he was never going to see again had felt almost cathartic.

Heck, it was why they were always throwing themselves right at Greed.

He was the only sibling who looked at Envy and saw more than just an accomplice or a pawn. Even if he was unbearable and egocentric, possessive yet unwilling and incapable of offering fidelity himself, even if he knew what they really looked like and called them a freak... at least he found them worth his time.

With Greed they could indulge in the lie that they could have at least a semblance of what humans had when they formed attachments. It was a lie, a sad, pathetic lie, but Envy was very good at lying.

"You know," a boy's voice rang out and made the two Homunculi look at it's direction. "The two of you sound like a married couple from a soap opera when you fight."

The Fullmetal Pipsqueak was standing not twenty meters away, an aloof expression on his face and a torch in his hand.

* * *

"No offense, but I kind of thought you were dead," Greed said to Elric as the three of them were wading towards the place the pipsqueak had landed in.

Edward just shrugged. "It was my first thought when I woke up too," he admitted, "Then I started looking around, and decided to see if I can find a way out, and eventually heard you guys fighting. What is this place anyway?"

"Well, you got us swallowed by Gluttony, so we're inside his belly," Envy informed him, their voice hostile.

Fullmetal stopped and turned to give them a quizzical look.

"That... can't... How is it possible?"

Envy shrugged mentally. Did it matter if they kept Father's secrets at this point? All three of them were as good as dead here, it was just a matter of time. "Gluttony is a failed attempt by our father to create a portal that leads to the Gate of Truth," they said and smirked, "He can't control it consciously. You must have gotten him really mad to open it up."

Edward's eyebrows shot up. "The Gate of Truth?" He sounded shocked. "But that's... that's not right. It's all white and empty, and..."

"Oh yeah?" Envy cocked their head and put a hand on their hip. "So that's what the real one looks like. This here, it's... how to explain it to a human?" They tapped a finger on their chin, "It's the in-between, yeah? A place that exists between reality and truth. It's where Gluttony's hunger comes from."

It was strange to watch Edward's face as his mind worked through what Envy told him.

But the little alchemist deserved _some_ credit. Most humans would be so dumbfounded that they would look at you as if you had just spouted some crazy nonsense. Elric actually digested the information and in the flickering orange light of the torch, Envy could see that his amber eyes did not seem as lost as it might have been expected of a lesser human.

He had seen the real Gate of Truth, after all. He had been there. That's why he and his brother were chosen to become Father's sacrifices.

Then Fullmetal's gaze became suspicious and he narrowed his eyes at Envy and Greed.

"Who would try to create something like this?" He seemed to be growing angrier. "Who is your father? It's King Bradley, isn't he?"

Greed let out a loud, sudden laugh. "What, are you serious?" He guffawed. " _That_ was your best guess?" He shook his head, "Nope, sorry. The Führer is just a Homunculus like us, kid."

The pipsqueak's eyes widened. "So Ling was right..." he murmured, then frowned. "If Bradley's one of you, then this means..." his gaze was uncharacteristically sharp, "It means that you're behind everything. Behind _Ishval_."

Ishval.

To this day, Ishval still was one of Envy's proudest memories. To ravage a whole country with a single bullet... They found themselves wanting to brag about it to Edward, to tell him all about the officer they had impersonated and the child they shot right in the stupid face. Imagining the pipsqueak alchemist's outrage made it seem like a hilarious idea.

But before they could say anything, Greed laughed again.

Stupid Greed. Always stealing the spotlight.

"I told you guys as much back in Dublith, didn't I? The military in this country has its fingers up way deeper than people will ever know," he grinned, "You really are out of your depth here, aren't you?"

"You talk big for someone who's trapped just like me," the pipsqueak shot back. "And what were you doing back in the forest anyways? I thought you said that you didn't get along with the rest of them," he nodded towards Envy who raised a thin eyebrow at Greed.

"Oh _really?_ " They purred, "Is that what you told Fullmetal, Greed?"

Greed just shrugged. "Well, what can I say, kid? Haven't you ever fought with your brother? Sometimes your siblings can make you want to beat the snot out of them," he gave Envy a quick glance, "but they're still family, right?"

Envy simply rolled their eyes at that.

"Family..." Edward whispered, more to himself than to the two Homunculi. "I must get back to Al..."

"Sorry, but that's not happening," Envy said lightly, "I told you already," they sighed loudly when the pipsqueak turned his blonde head to glare at them. "There is no way out of this place. All we can do is sit down and wait to die. Hrmph," they gave Fullmetal a crooked smile, "In any case, you're going to be the first to go."

The Fullmetal Pipsqueak just stared at them for a moment, and Envy slightly shifted their feet under the surface of the blood lake, preparing their body for a fight stance and silently willing Elric to take the bait. They wondered if Greed was going to join them in killing the boy or was he just going to kick back and enjoy the show.

But, to their immense disappointment, Edward just turned away and resumed walking towards their destination.

"Come on," he urged them loudly, "I have something to show you."

* * *

"I found lots of pieces like this when I started looking around. It's good that I chanced upon you two so we could carry them all here," Fullmetal said as he used the torch to illuminate the stony surface of the mural. "It's Xerxesian and it reminded me of the transmutation circle back in the Fifth Laboratory. But..." He hesitated and looked back at Envy and Greed. "It's different. The matrix is much more advanced. This here, the sun, it represents the soul. And the moon," he tapped the old marble slab gently with an automail finger, "it symbolizes the mind. And this here," he pointed to another block of stone, "represents the body. This is a summoning circle for human transmutation."

Well.

Envy was impressed. The little human was getting _really_ close. But they wanted to see if he could connect all the dots on his own.

"Yeah, so?" They asked dismissively, "What does it matter?"

Fullmetal gave them a mirthless smile.

"The last piece of the puzzle was when you said that Gluttony's insides are actually a defective Gate. So, considering that the matrix – see how the word for God is upside down and the alchemical dragon below? – would basically translate to something like " _And I will strike God down and become a perfect Being_ ", who put those murals here?" He took a step towards Envy, "It was your father, wasn't it? The whole nation of Xerxes, dead overnight. What happened to its citizens?" Another step, "He killed them all to make a Philosopher's Stone, didn't he?" His face was close to Envy's now. They could see the flickering sparks from the torch reflected into the angry golden orbs. "He's the one who transmuted himself, wasn't he? He's the one who's trying to become powerful enough to surpass God! Who is he? TELL ME!" He yelled.

My, this was certainly unexpected. The pipsqueak was a clever one, who knew?

"Why are you asking us?" Greed's smooth voice made them both turn their heads towards him. He was crouching in front of the biggest piece of the mural, studying the glyphs with an impassive face. "I'm barely over two hundred years old and Envy hasn't even dinged one-eighty. Xerxes was a little before our time," he added wryly and slowly stood up. " _You_ , however, should know at least _something_ about it."

"Me?" Fullmetal frowned. Huh. Greed has somehow managed to catch him off guard. "Why me? What are you talking about?"

"Well," Greed eyed the boy critically, " _you're_ from Xerxesian descent. You would think that your ancestors would keep at least some stories about how their homeland was destroyed."

Fuck, Greed was right!

With his blonde hair and white skin it was easy to think that Fullmetal was Amestrian, but the eyes were a dead giveway. Much like the Ishvalans with their red irises, the Xerxesians had been famous for the unique golden color of their eyes. What was it with those desert people? And why had none of them noticed it sooner? Did it even matter?

Interesting.

The brat blinked in confusion. "That doesn't make sense. My parents are Amestrian."

"Sure," Greed shrugged. "But we're talking more than four centuries here. Someone somewhere down the line came from Xerxes. That's how humans work, right?" He shrugged again, "Should have asked your folks about it before you got stuck in a false Gate of Truth."

The pipsqueak averted his eyes and stepped away. "Wouldn't have mattered. My mother is dead and my father is a damned bastard," he muttered angrily.

"Well, I'd fucking drink to that!" Greed laughed and sat cross-legged on the small stony island where they had gathered. "Pity that the only thing to drink here is blood."

And then Edward dropped the bomb.

"And what if I told you that I can get us out?" He whispered.

* * *

"Are you sure this will work?" Envy asked skeptically as they watched Fullmetal finishing up the last symbols on the transmutation circle.

"Most alchemists believe that human transmutation can revive the dead. I know better," Edward cocked his head sideways as he carefully drew the glyph representing the crested moon with two fingers dripping with blood. "It's equivalent exchange. You can't transmute a soul that doesn't exist in this world anymore. _That_ can never work. But what about a living person?" He took a deep breath and stayed crouched before the circle as he examined his work. "I can use this circle to deconstruct myself," he said slowly, "And then I will put myself back together. That's human transmutation. Since Gluttony is a false Gate, if we pass through the _real_ one we... should wind up back in our own reality."

Envy was a little annoyed that they needed a moment to process the idea.

"What if it goes wrong?" They asked, just to see how far had the boy thought this through.

"A failed transmutation results in a rebound," Fullmetal lightly rolled his automail shoulder joint, "and it will ricochet back on the one who performed it. In this case, me."

"Hmph," Greed was pacing back and forth, carefully listening to the pipsqueak explaining his plan, "There's too much riding on this one. If you die, me and Envy can't try again," he looked at Envy and narrowed his eyes. "Let him use your Stone."

 _WHAT?!_

"Are you serious?" They were shocked.

"Would I be joking in a moment like this?" Greed deadpanned with a question of his own.

"Well why don't you give him y..." Yeah, Envy realized how ridiculous the question was and promptly shut their mouth. Good luck making Greed share.

In all honesty, they would rather give up a little of their power than argue with their brother. By the time the argument was going to be over, Fullmetal likely would have starved to death and then they were going to be back to the ass end of nowhere.

This was their chance. Their only chance.

It didn't make it any more pleasant.

They reached out a hand and started shifting the innards of their form, feeling the warmth of the Stone as it traveled under their skin.

Then they opened up their palm and allowed the flesh to make way. The stony isle was suddenly bathed in a red glow, redder than ruby, redder than fire, redder than blood. Arcs of crimson light danced and crackled around Envy's fingertips as the Philosopher's Stone appeared in the open.

It must have been the first time Fullmetal had actually seen a real Stone, if one didn't count the tiny ones that the Homunculi had supplied to pawns like McDougal and Cornello.

The warring expressions on Edward's fice were priceless. He looked almost like he was in agony. He wanted to get back to the real world just as badly as the Homunculi did, but, being aware of what the Stones actually were, his foolish human squeamishness was making him hesitate.

"It's just energy, kid," Greed's voice sounded almost soft. "I know you're thinking that it's made of human souls, but they're not people anymore. No minds, no bodies, no memories. They don't remember who or what they were, or where do they come from, they'll never be back to what they were. They... they're nothing but a resource."

"But..."

"For fuck's sake, Greed," Envy growled irritably, "He's hesitating because if he doesn't consider the souls inside the Stone human, then he's questioning the humanity of his own brother. Tsk," they shook their head at the pipsqueak. Envy would never be able to figure out humans. Such... contradictions in such lowly creatures. Edward Elric was clever enough to find a way out of Gluttony's belly, a feat that was supposed to be impossible – not just difficult, not just dangerous, _impossible_ – and yet he couldn't stomach using something that used to be alive centuries ago in order to actually execute his plan. "Would you hesitate throwing a log into the fire because you pity the tree it came from? It's a simple question, really," they waved the gleaming Stone in front of Fullmetal's eyes. "How badly do you want to see your brother again, Edward Elric?"

They watched as he steeled himself and the determination shone in his eyes.

And then he triggered the transmutation.

Alchemical energy suddenly roared all around them and a gale erupted from the summoning circle as the Eye – the _real_ Eye – materialized itself and its pupil started right at the pipsqueak.

"Greed!" He cried, "Jump in it!"

"I really hope you know what you're doing, kid," Greed gulped and stepped inside the circle.

He was immediately disintegrated. Before his face disappeared into nothingness, he looked at Envy and gave them a nod.

Was it meant to be encouraging? A goodbye? Envy couldn't tell, because then they were deconstructed too.

They had expected it to be agonizingly painful but it was over before they could blink. As their vision blackened, they felt the Stone surrendering some of its energy to pay the toll for the transmutation.

That meant that it worked, right?

Right?

Ri...

...

White.

This was all there was.

Had they gone blind?

No, that's not right. They had heard that blind people saw only blackness. Not to mention that they could see their arms flailing around as they hurtled into the void.

And then their head was suddenly filled with thoughts and memories that were not their own. They burned their way in... and out, to be forever forgotten almost as soon as they appeared, leaving behind only a shadow of a shadow, an afterimage in the mind's eye.

It hurt.

They felt Father's consciousness sinking into his own vessel, ghostly fingers grabbing at the thousands upon thousands of screaming souls inside. Father looked for those who were envious and bitter, those who in their pettiness and jealousy had caused harm to their fellow man. Those who decieved others and those who hated themselves. Those who had nothing and wanted everyone else to be like them. Those who stole and killed not out of need or compulsion but out of absolute malice. The sadistic and the pitiful, all alike. The ones who had allowed the parasite emotion to drown their own joy and warp them into something colder and more cruel.

And then he expelled them.

Envy knew that they were witnessing their own creation from Father's eyes.

They felt nothing but disinterest. Not the anticipation of bringing a new offspring into the mortal world, not even the calculating decision to introduce a new pawn into the game.

Just an impossibly callous mind that purged itself of vice in order to get one step closer to posthuman perfection.

Father wasn't even disgusted.

Envy was not even worth that much.

They were worse than trash. They were just something that Father had not wanted. And he had removed them. A simple solution for a simple problem. Almost surgical. It was how all of them were made.

Suddenly they saw themselves standing inside the phone booth where they had killed Hughes.

But this time the places seemed reversed. They were the one kneeling there, shaking with pain. And when they looked up, they saw Roy Mustang staring coldly down at them.

Envy tried to raise their hands to protect themselves but the Flame Alchemist snapped his fingers and a thundering, fiery inferno engulfed the Homunculus.

Envy screamed as more and more images filled their head only to disappear in the blaze of Mustang's fire.

Greed howling in pain as his chained body was lowered into a vat of molten metal. Lust crumbling to ash in Mustang's feet. Gluttony screeching for her to save him as Pride devoured him. Pride himself begging Fullmetal for mercy only for the boy to reach _into_ his soul and destroy his very essence. Sloth getting impaled and beaten down by Armstrong and a bunch of other humans until his Stone ran out of souls. Wrath falling in battle against Scar and bleeding to death after the grim-faced Ishvalan had ripped both his arms off.

All the while the fire kept ravaging Envy's body and they kept screaming.

And then it was over.

* * *

 _This chapter was slightly more difficult to write. I feel like it's important, both in canon and for this AU story, but some of the things about it were challenging._

 _I really didn't want to just write up the same stuff that happens in the show. That's no use to anybody. So far, the story has been going pretty much in the same general direction as the show with only minor deviations here and there. And while I will keep the general direction the same in the future (I'm not conceited enough to think I can rewrite the show into something better, nor does the prospect interests me), I also want to take more advantage of the fact that it's an AU._

 _This chapter, even if it doesn't look like it, is a step in that direction. The gist of it is the same as the plot of Episode 28, but I've played around with the details. The most obvious ones are things like swapping Ling with Greed, or Envy not blabbing about Ishval and turning into a giant monster, but a more important one is the scene at the end, with the things Envy sees. The show never addressed it, so I guess I'm stupid or something, but considering that the human transmutation was technically paid for by Envy with their Stone, they should have seen the Gate too. At least that's how *I* understand the logic of alchemy in FMA, but I do not doubt that I am somehow wrong, in which case... well, AU, y'know._

 _Until next time!_

 _Peace!_


	7. Chapter 7

Gluttony howled in pain when Greed's pointy shoe smashed into his face again.

"You damned imbecile!" Greed roared, his fangs bared in fury. "What if we hadn't gotten out, huh?" He kicked the fat piece of filth again, "Did you think about that, huh?" Another kick, this time right into Gluttony's meaty collarbone. Greed heard it crack a second before the skin split and a moment later his little brother's body started regenerating itself, the red glow throwing queer, flickering shadows against the stony walls of the underground lair.

Greed roughly jammed the heel of his shoe into the closing wound, causing Gluttony to screech. "I ought to kill you all over again!" Greed thundered, "The old man should never have brought you back! You fucking idiot!"

Gluttony had always been the stupid one. The useless one. The load. In Greed's opinion he was far worse than a mere failed attempt to recreate the Gate of Truth. For beings who were supposed to embody the perfection of evolution's next step, Gluttony was a woefully inadequate Homunculus. The black sheep of the family, so to speak. Literally _all_ he was good for was getting rid of evidence.

So he was in a foul mood and he was taking it out on his dolt of a brother. What of it?

His mind fled back to his conversation with Envy earlier today. That made him even angrier and so he continued to savagely stomp on Gluttony's lumpy head and chest.

" _Who's Kimblee?" Greed had asked, feeling a frown settle onto his face._

" _I told you, stupid, he's a State Alchemist. Wrath is releasing him from prison to hunt Scar and Marcoh for us," they had answered with a roll of those pretty purple eyes of theirs as the two of them walked towards the secret elevator that led to the upper floors of Central High Command._

Greed's next kick made Gluttony slip on the floor like a morbidly obese seal on ice. He truly was disgusting.

"Lust..." he heard his little brother whimper, "Help me, Lust..."

"Lust is fucking dead! She can't help you anymore," Greed snarled, "Just _how_ dumb are you?!"

His brother simply started crying when he heard those words, curling into himself like some ridiculous ball of putrid flesh.

No, really, when the time came and Greed took over, Gluttony had to go. Maybe the idiot would even be grateful. In death he would finally be reunited with his dear Lust.

" _I got that," Greed had grumbled at Envy. "What I mean is, why do_ you _have to pick him up? Wrath can send some of his lapdogs. Why you?" His eyes had narrowed. "What's this Kimblee to you?"_

" _I'm the only one he knows," Envy had shrugged, dismissively, "He doesn't even have an idea who King Bradley really is, he thinks the military's just working for us."_

" _How come?"_

" _How come what?"_

" _How come you're the only one he knows?"_

"I miss her, Greed," Gluttony blubbered dumbly in his squeaky voice, as if he had forgotten that Greed was in the middle of beating him up, tears and blood mixing on his face, "I can't smell her anymore... Lust..."

It was odd... and then again, it wasn't.

Before Greed took off on his own a century ago, some of the Homunculi had already formed particular attachments to each other. Pairs, if you will. Envy was Greed's possession, after all, so that was natural. Pride haughtily claimed that he was too old to partake in such childish notions and Sloth's apathy prevented him from caring too much about any of them.

But the other pair had been curious. Lust had taken Gluttony under her wing soon after he was created and they were inseparable ever since.

It hadn't been the same as with Greed and Envy.

For starters, he was _pretty_ sure that their relationship was not sexual. Could Gluttony even have sex? No, it was almost... parental. Lust had treated Gluttony as if she was his mother. Or... rather, as a particularly responsible older sister which she, in a way, was.

She had made sure that he didn't get hurt too badly on missions, she almost always allowed him to hang out with her and she had even fussed over his diet. Granted, this probably was less because of some misplaced affection and more because there was no telling if Gluttony was going to eat something – or someone – important if left on his own, but still.

As far as Greed could tell, this hadn't changed much in the century he had spent away from home. But then Mustang killed Lust and Gluttony had become unbearable.

Greed didn't forgive, nor did he ever forget. He merely delayed. He fully intended to pay the Flame Alchemist back for Lust's death one day, sacrifice for Father's plans or not. Lust may have been a cold bitch, but she was _Greed's_ cold bitch of a sister, and he didn't like it when people toyed with what was his. Just like Wrath was going to get his for the chimeras.

And like this new moron was going to woefully regret it if he thought he could lay even a finger on Envy.

" _We worked together during the war," Envy had explained, "I was the one who started it, after all," their voice rang with pride. "And Kimblee ended it when Marcoh finally had his breakthrough with the Ishvalan prisoners and made a new Stone."_

" _So you got him a Philosopher's Stone?" Greed was liking this less and less._

" _Yep!" Envy, for their part, had seemed oblivious, "Then the nutjob went and killed his superior officers so he could keep it for himself," they had cackled, "I guess he didn't figure that we knew about it too."_

" _Lovely," Greed had bit out, "Mind telling me why he wasn't executed?"_

" _I convinced Father and Wrath to go easy on him," Envy smirked, "He's very talented at killing, you know."_

 _His possessiveness had been a raging inferno inside. It had taken a considerable effort of will not to grab Envy and have his way with them right there and then. Make them forget about any human murderers... But no, this would have been a sign of weakness._

 _To admit jealousy to_ Envy _... Yeah, thanks but no thanks._

He sighed and sat on the ground next to Gluttony.

"Yeah," he murmured, "I don't like that she's dead too."

"Are you done hitting me, Greed?" Gluttony asked pitifully.

"Yeah," Greed shrugged absent-mindedly. "Sorry. I'm just... angry."

"But Envy's not dead," Gluttony observed, his round head cocked sideways.

That was annoyingly perceptive for such a lackwit.

"Forget about it," Greed growled and noticed how Gluttony flinched. "Get out of here."

The dimwit slinked off and left Greed to sit alone in the dark and brood.

It had all gone wrong after they escaped from the false Gate.

The fat idiot had brought Alphonse Elric to the lair in the hope that Father might find a way to get Greed, Envy and Fullmetal out of his belly.

Which, ironically, had coincided with their own escape and the three had burst out of Gluttony only to literally land at the old man's wrinkled feet.

Talk about embarrassment.

Of course, it hadn't taken more than a minute for the Elric brats to start trouble. At this point Greed was starting to believe that if he had been made mortal like Wrath, those two were going to give him grey hairs before long.

The Promised Day couldn't come soon enough.

And as if that wasn't enough, just to prove that when it rains it pours, Scar, the Ishvalan alchemist-killer that Envy had mentioned before, had somehow discovered the lair too and decided to invite himself for an all-around slugfest. It hadn't taken him long to unite forces with the Elrics, especially after Fullmetal told him that the Homunculi were behind the civil war.

Greed didn't even want to know who the little girl who accompanied Scar was, but she had fought like the devil. She and Scar had managed to somehow keep doing alchemy even after Father shut off the access across all of Central so the fight _really_ hadn't been fun. Gluttony had ended up pretty much dead and Father had had to spend some effort into healing the moron.

Waste of time, in Greed's opinion.

Eventually the Homunculi managed to subdue Edward and Alphonse and Father ordered Envy to take them up to Wrath so he could sort the brats out. _Better him than me,_ Greed had laughed at their retreating backs as Envy led them towards the secret elevator, but that had been pretty much the only highlight of the day.

Scar and the little girl had gotten away and they had taken Dr. Marcoh with them. Greed had no idea who the sad, old geezer was until he had accompanied Envy once when they brought him food, and, as it turned out, he was an accomplished alchemist who could make Philosopher's Stones. Apparently he had dropped his balls off some time during the war in Ishval and refused to cooperate anymore.

Envy had taken great pleasure in taunting and threatening the old fool.

But now that the enemy had him, Father had authorized the release of Zolf J. Kimblee, a murderous State Alchemist who was rotting in jail, was somewhat in on the big plan and was willing to help the Homunculi out. Envy said that going against Scar and Marcoh would be a walk in the park for the new guy.

Greed was starting to get really sick of all these alchemist types.

But all of that, _all_ of it, he could tolerate. Most of it was Father's problem anyway. And yeah, sure, that meant that Pride and Wrath were going to make it everyone else's problem too, but Greed wasn't about to lose sleep if a bunch of misfit alchemists managed to bruise the old man's ego a little bit.

What Greed couldn't tolerate was the loss of his new car (when he saw him next time, he was going to have _words_ with the Xingese princeling who had appropriated Greed's vehicle in order to drive Gluttony and Armor-Boy back to Central before fucking off to God knows where) and Envy's apparent familiarity with the so-called Crimson Alchemist.

But what really gave him the creeps was how... off Envy seemed ever since they escaped from Gluttony's stomach. They _looked_ fine most of the time, and certainly acted like one would expect them to, but Greed knew them far better than he had ever let them know.

Something was bothering Envy and was making them second guess themselves.

His jealousy would have been even uglier if he suspected a connection between Envy's new condition and the release of Kimblee, but the truth was that Envy was off their game even before the old man told everyone on how they were going to proceed about recapturing Marcoh.

Greed wasn't worried. You had to be mentally retarded to worry about Envy. The little minx knew perfectly well how to take care of themselves and they hadn't sustained any troublesome injuries lately. They were just shaken from the experience inside the fake Gate of Truth. That had to be it. To be sucked into a non-reality of utter decay, and then to have to get out by being literally disintegrated back into the normal world... everyone would take it hard. Yes, that was it. Nothing to worry about. Abso-fuckin'-lutely nothing.

"You know, it really doesn't suit you," the voice was melodic and confident, and tore him out of his thoughts.

Greed looked up and saw a man standing in the barely-lit gloom of the underground lair. He was lean and wiry, and his gait, as he walked towards the Homunculus, suggested that he was probably stronger than he looked at first glance. Long dark hair tied in a ponytail, an elegant suit so white that it almost seemed like it was glowing in the dark... no, Greed had not seen this guy ever before.

"The great Greed the Avaricious," the guy went on as he stood directly before Greed, an unpleasant smile gracing his thin face, "sitting here all by himself. It's rather pitiful, no?"

Greed narrowed his eyes, suddenly understanding the game that was being played, "Very funny, sweetheart," he deadpanned.

Envy laughed as red lightning crackled through and around their body as the guy in the white suit melted away to reveal their favorite form. They looked down at him with a sardonic smile.

"I mean it, though," Envy said. "It really doesn't look good on you."

"What are you talking about?" Greed felt a bit irritated. Envy's endless mind games... _That_ was something that he hadn't missed in a century, even if he had missed almost everything else about his little monster.

"You were jealous," they said matter-of-factly, inspecting the fingernails on one of their dainty hands. "I don't know if I ought to be flattered or insulted."

"Why would you be insulted?" Greed frowned, " _If_ I were jealous, which is simply a delusion of yours, freak." Let's see how Envy liked it when it was their turn to feel slighted.

It didn't work. Envy laughed in his face before putting a hand on a slender hip. "Oh _please_ ," they drawled, "As if I would ever consider a human. Even one such as Kimblee," they shrugged, "He is a good deal more gifted than most of them, and has no conscience whatsoever which is always a plus, but come on. I mean, really, a _human_?" They shuddered, "I have standards. Unlike some," they gave Greed an evil smirk. "If I wanted to make you mad, I would have seduced Wrath, although he is absurdly fond of that plump old lady of his, so I would have had to get _rrrrrreally_ creative," they cackled at Greed's murderous expression.

"You're a riot today, I see," he bit through clenched teeth.

And then, suddenly, Envy's expression froze and their grin curdled. It was gone as soon as it had appeared and they regained their composure before Greed could blink, but he still saw it.

Yes, something was not right.

"Envy..." Greed began but they cut him off.

"I saw what you were doing to Gluttony," Envy said, no longer gloating.

Greed frowned. "Yeah, so?"

"I don't want you hurting him again," they scowled down at him.

That's it.

There was something wrong with Envy.

Objecting to cruelty against someone weaker? Who was the Homunculus standing before him and what had it done with the real Envy?

"Envy, sweet cheeks," Greed said slowly, "What's _wrong_ with you?"

"I know he's dumb and annoying, but it's not his fault," they said stubbornly, "Lust knew how to handle him. If she could do it, so can we."

"Okay, I'm freaking out a little here," screw it, Greed was getting truly worried. "You've been off ever since we got out. Do you want to go to the old man, have him see if you're well?"

"No!" The anger in Envy's voice startled him. "I... I'm fine," they shook their head, strands of long hair waving around their face, "I _am,_ " they added irritably when they looked at Greed's eyes. "You know what? Forget it... Do whatever you want."

With that they flounced off, disappearing into the tunnels and leaving Greed alone in the darkness.

* * *

 _I debated whether to include the fight in Father's throne room in a chapter of its own. It could have been a neat way to introduce Scar and Mei Chang into the story, and to explain what happened to Ling (he wasn't there, after he drove Al and Gluttony to Central with Greed's ride, Al made him leave and go take care of Lan Fan, correctly thinking that the Homunculi would just kill him since they don't give a shit about him)._

 _Ultimately I decided that it's not worth it since, apart from a few details, it would largely be retelling a fight scene we've already seen in the show and the outcome would have been very much the same._

 _And so we get this. It's set in Episode 31 when Kimblee is released from prison._

 _Until next time!_


	8. Chapter 8

_**South City**_

 _ **Amestris, early 1800's**_

"Don't they look splendid?" Lust asked, her voice almost serene. "Like silly little ants, marching away to die."

"It's gonna be years before they carve the Crest of Blood. Imagine how much better it will get," Envy smirked maliciously, looking down at the host that was leaving South City. "Still think the new uniforms look stupid, though," they added with a dramatic huff.

"Can I go after them and eat the laggards?" Gluttony asked, his beady eyes blinking hungrily at the crowd gathered below the bell tower and the marching soldiers.

"No," Lust absent-mindedly reached a gloved hand and patted Gluttony's bald head. "We need them. I'll find you a snack later."

"Okay, Lust," Gluttony chirped happily.

Envy was paying little attention to their siblings. They were studying the sea of humans below. The disgusting creatures had turned the war into a spectacle.

All the Homunculi needed for the Crests of Blood that now littered the past of Amestris, lurking unseen under the surface of history, was death and suffering. The loss of life was simply a medium of power, a way to ease the flow of energy when the Promised Day came and Father harvested this country.

It was the humans who made bloodshed into a theatrical farce. The gilded epaulettes and pompous hats of the commanders, the pristine brass-button uniforms of the soldiers, the proud stallions that the alchemists rode, the cheering crowd and the rain of flower petals that showered the path of the host... It beggared belief that humans would glorify something that was going to bring _nothing_ but misery and pain, and yet here it was. The same idiots who cheered and laughed now were probably going to bawl bitter tears before the first day of winter.

Truly, if humans were even half as smart as they thought they were, the Homunculi's job would have been a lot more difficult. They deserved everything that they were getting. Envy smiled, knowing that in the following decades it was going to get worse – so _much_ worse – for the filthy cockroaches.

Envy's gaze wandered to the sun-kissed fields beyond the city walls where the rest of the army had gathered days ago. This parade was for the generals and the commanders, to show off the magnificence of Amestris' military might before the common folk.

It made Envy want to possess a human-like digestive system _just so_ they could barf. In their opinion cattle shouldn't be allowed so much liberties.

Their attention returned back to the crowd. The girls among them sounded the most enthusiastic in their cheering. Envy vaguely wondered just how many of the pretty ones got fucked like harlots last night, to give one for good luck to the brave soldiers who were going to fight the vile rebels that threatened the South. This excursion was just the beginning of the plans the Homunculi had for this region of Amestris, and what better way to make humans fight for generations on end than to give them fathers they never knew who just happened to have perished valiantly against the Enemy? Or, in the case of those who survived the war and returned home, mutilated wretches who shuddered whenever they heard the clang of steel and who tended to turn their pain and nightmares on their offspring or spouses – and the disillusioned and bitter offspring, more often than not, found a warmer and more stable home in the waiting embrace of the army. The Homunculi won either way.

It worked like a charm. Every fucking time. What did Lust always used to say... ah yes, humans never learned. Never. They weren't likely to ever admit it, but it was this bumbling blindness that made Envy's hate boil over when it came to humans. They probably would have cared less if humankind was just not so... collectively dumb. Such lowly, shit-filled creatures did not deserve to have it so easy and so good. Not when it was everything but easy and good for Envy.

It was unfairness on a cosmic scale.

"Watcha doin', kids?" Greed's voice startled Envy and they turned to look as their big brother joined the other three Homunculi on top the bell tower. "Ah!" Greed's sounded teasing and flippant. What else was new? "I nearly missed the parade. Well, good job to everyone, eh?" He laughed heartily, the sound nearly drowned by the trumpets far below as the last of the commander's host departed South City to spearhead the main army and destroy the rebels. Envy averted their eyes away from him. They didn't want to look at Greed right now.

"Where were you?" Lust sounded disinterested as she always did. "You were supposed to meet us last night."

"Celebrating," Greed answered simply. That one word was enough and Envy silently clenched their teeth when they felt Lust's amethyst gaze flickering to study them for a second.

It was one thing to humiliate Envy. That was bad enough. To humiliate them in front of their siblings was something else altogether.

Whoever the human girl that Greed had so magnanimously graced with his pleasure last night was, she was going to die screaming.

Greed's indifference made it even worse. He knew how much his infidelity infuriated Envy and yet he kept on as he always had. Envy was beginning to realize that he didn't do it out of cruelty.

Somehow that made it hurt more. As if he didn't even care enough even to spite them.

God, they hated him so much.

He should have been with _them_ last night, he should have held _them_ in his arms to mark the beginning of the South campaign, he should have ravaged _their_ lips with his talented mouth, he should have let _them_ enjoy the strength of his muscular arms, he should have fucked _them_ into oblivion.

Instead, Envy had been discarded. It had happened before. It was going to happen again.

Look at the needy freak, they could almost hear Greed's crowing in their head.

"Anyways," Lust intoned and Envy looked at their sister, "Gluttony and I will be going back to Central. Father wanted Pride and Sloth to begin working on the next stage of the plan as soon as the war here started, so I'm going to have to run things at home." She shrugged, her black gown hugging her seductive form. "You have things under control, right?" She cocked an arched eyebrow at Greed.

"Yeah, yeah," he said dismissively and moved to stand behind Envy, placing a big hand on their shoulder. "Freakshow and I have it handled, Lusty."

Lust just hummed, unimpressed, then gently swatted the back of Gluttony's head. "Come on, you," she chided Gluttony who was once again staring hungrily at the humans below. "Let's get you fed and head back home."

As Lust and Gluttony started climbing down, Greed grabbed Envy's waist and turned their body so they could face him.

"Why the long face, sweet cheeks?" He grinned down at them, his fangs white and shiny. "I thought you would be happier. Scores of disgusting humans about to die and everything."

He was mocking them.

For a second Envy was oh-so-tempted to just grab his stupid jacket by the fur lapels and throw the scumbag from the bell tower. See how much he would enjoy a two hundred feet dive right into the pavement below. Envy was sure it was going to hurt ( _good!_ ), but it wasn't worth the hassle. At the very least, the locals would be frightened if a man who suddenly splattered on the ground just got up and his body healed itself in seconds. Pride would never let them hear the end of it; Lust's contempt was going to be quieter but no less poisonous. And they didn't even want to think what would Father do.

"Get your grubby hands off me," they growled at Greed instead, voice dripping with bile.

"No can do, sweetheart," Greed squeezed the exposed skin on their sides with his strong fingers. "At least tell me what's bugging you."

Envy snarled and shoved at his chest with enough power to force him off. Greed stumbled back and merely looked at them with a perplexed expression.

"Go and bother some humans, why don't you?" Envy glared at their big brother and crossed their arms in front of their chest.

"That's it?" Greed's eyes widened and a small smile flickered across his face. "My little Envy the Jealous..." He stepped into Envy's space and braced his hands on the stony railing behind their back, using his torso and limbs to create something akin to a cage around them, "... is actually _jealous?_ "

His smug grin only angered Envy more and they were fully prepared to start a fight when Greed lifted one of his hands and rested it on their face, cupping their cheek.

The gesture was surprisingly gentle for him. Greed rarely bothered to be considerate.

"Envy," Greed lightly tilted his head sideways, his purple eyes boring into theirs. "You know you're my favorite, right?"

They despised the fact that his words made their breathing faster.

He always knew _exactly_ what to say, which buttons to push.

Most men, Envy supposed, would have began spinning a sugary tirade about how Envy imagined things that weren't true, or how much they meant to them. Some might have asked for forgiveness. Others might have sworn that from this day on they would always be faithful. A few fools may even have the audacity to speak about love.

Greed had no taste for such empty niceties.

And neither did Envy.

But he _knew_ them.

He knew them since they were created.

He knew that being desired meant everything to them.

And he successfully exploited that, every single time.

"Come on," Greed smiled at them. "Let's paint this town red."

Envy could not deny that their big brother had a unique approach to life. No other Homunculus enjoyed it so thoroughly, milking every minute of every hour for all it was worth. Now that Lust had returned to Central and left the two of them in charge, Greed's mood was better than ever and he had refused to let Envy wallow in their own bitterness.

They knew it wasn't out of kindness. Greed was utterly selfish and simply wanted to spend the day in the company of a lover who could entertain him, but he had made them have a good time all the same.

He had never been as gracious and affable with them as he was on that day. At the time Envy foolishly attributed it to the success of the war they had sparked in the south.

Many hours later Envy had somehow found themselves lying in his bed, breathing heavily, their naked body covered in a fine sheen of sweat.

It took a considerable effort to make a Homunculus sweat and pant like that but, again, Greed knew exactly which buttons to push.

They heard him move and lazily turned their head to look at him as he got off the bed.

If there was one thing that Lust and Greed had in common, it was the good looks. Much like she was made to be the perfect female, so was he the most magnificent male that Envy had ever seen. Granted, there wasn't much competition among the "boys" in the family anyways – Gluttony was ridiculous, Pride was made of shadows and Sloth was frighteningly huge, so Greed pretty much won by default with his chiseled torso, muscular arms, long legs and firm buttocks.

He was the most handsome of the Homunculi, and Envy would never even consider that a human could ever rival him. And for tonight, they were his. Tomorrow was always uncertain, and forever was out of the question for someone like Greed, but Envy could have tonight.

Greed grabbed a bottle of expensive bourbon and took a long swallow before he turned around, showing Envy that their favorite part of his anatomy was ready to go again.

He slid back on the bed, hovering above them, eating them up with his burning gaze. When he claimed their mouth in a passionate kiss Envy could taste the alcohol on his tongue.

Yes, Greed knew how to live life to the fullest.

There were moments like this one, not often but sometimes, when Envy was nothing but content. When they didn't drown in their own hatred for humans, when they didn't remind themselves that they were a monster who had nothing, when they didn't even spare a thought about their father and his sinister web of plans.

Those moments only came when Greed was around.

He was gone the next morning.

* * *

 _ **Central**_

 _ **Amestris, present day**_

Envy's head hurt.

The headaches came and went ever since they escaped from Gluttony's stomach. They hated pain, but it was tolerable compared to the odd mood swings that hit them without warning.

What was happening to them?

What did it matter if Greed was beating Gluttony up? Greed was older, smarter and stronger, and even with his century-long disloyalty to Father, he was still of a higher rank than the fat dumbass. If he wanted to torment Gluttony, he was well within his rights to do so and Envy shouldn't have thought that there was anything wrong with it.

And then they heard that small, treacherous voice in the back of their head.

Is that really how they honored Lust's memory? When Mustang murdered her, both Envy and Greed had been ready to go on the warpath in the name of revenge. And now they were trying to justify the way Greed had mistreated her favorite sibling just because he was jealous of Kimblee and was taking it out on Gluttony?

Who does that?

What was wrong with them?

Envy missed Lust.

Not because she had been a strong ally.

Not because they were angry that a mere human had defeated a Homunculus.

But because she was their sister and she was dead.

But Homunculi were not supposed to feel like that.

They were powerful, they were self-sufficient.

They didn't love.

They weren't _humans_.

Gluttony loved Lust.

He still loves her.

He will love her until one day Father's schemes will get him destroyed.

No.

Father will not get us destroyed.

He will not.

Yes, he will.

We are nothing to him.

Me, Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth... even Pride.

We are _nothing_ to him.

We are Homunculi.

We are _not_ nothing.

We are to _him_.

Maybe Greed was right to leave.

We are better than the humans.

We will get to live in the world Father is going to make for us.

He's not going to make it for us.

He's making it for _himself_.

And _none_ of us will live to see it.

 _WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!_

Envy huddled into themselves, head throbbing and chest aching. They missed Lust, they felt bad for Gluttony... they even caught themselves worrying about Sloth earlier, Sloth who had been digging the nationwide circle for nearly a century now, all alone in the darkness beneath the earth, forced to work ceaselessly like a beast of burden.

Envy had never cared about any of their siblings before. Not like this. This wasn't normal.

It was the Fullmetal Pipsqueak's fault somehow. With his _brilliant_ idea to pass through the real Gate of Truth. Everything had gone wrong inside Envy's head since then. The short-tempered idiot had wanted to see his tin can of a brother so much that... that...

Envy let out a quiet growl of pain and frustration. They closed their eyes, trying to get these unnatural emotions in order.

It was then when they heard the echoing footsteps.

Someone was inside the maze of tunnels that interconnected Father's lair with Central High Command.

Envy went still and waited.

Was this some sort of a stunt by the Elrics? No... that didn't make sense. They had supposedly gone all the way to North City up in the Briggs Mountains. Couldn't be Mustang either, according to Wrath _that_ particular dog of the military had been properly scolded, now that he knew that the whole country belonged to the Homunculi and that they had Hawkeye. He wouldn't dare. Scar was even less likely, with Kimblee on his trail far away from Central.

Who did that leave? The Xingese prince and his goons? But why?

Soon it became apparent that the intruder was alone.

Envy had crouched in a small alcove and had used their gift to force their skin to mimic the colors of their surroundings. They couldn't turn invisible of course, but if they stood very still this was the next best thing.

When the cloaked figure moved past Envy they leapt out of the alcove in a flash of alchemical red light, returning their form back to normal and using the full swing of their considerable weight to tackle the cretin who had dared to enter the place where the real monsters lived.

The intruder let out a terrified scream when Envy pressed one deceptively slender – yet surprisingly heavy – arm on his sunken chest and used the other to tear his dirty hood off.

They blinked in confusion.

Who was this guy?

He was somewhere between ugly and comical, with a bald head and a big nose, discolored splotches strewn all over his filthy skin. Envy felt something moving and when they looked down, they were surprised to see a lizard-like tail twitching nervously under the cloak that had hidden it a moment ago.

The guy was a chimera.

That made even less sense.

"Who the hell are _you_?" They hissed in his face.

The chimera gulped. "M-my name's B-bi-Bido. Bido," he repeated himself a little louder, correctly noticing that Envy's patience was far too short for moronic stuttering. "I came for Mister Greed. Is he okay?"

* * *

 _I think it should be obvious by the date I put there, and the fact that Lust is present, that the first part of this chapter is a flashback set roughly a century ago. A flashback, in fact, showing what transpired between Envy and Greed on the very day he left to be his own man instead of his dad's goon._

 _I've been wanting to include Bido in this story for a while now cause it would be interesting to see him in an AU where there is no GreedLing and Greed would be perfectly aware of who he is and what they are to each other. Bido is, of course, very much inconsequential as a character (other than through his death and all), but I found myself impressed by the guy all the same. Talk about loyalty. I mean, if I was a petty criminal/chimera, *I* wouldn't go on a journey across a country and into the den of the obviously evil military just to find my boss. Poor guy must have really believed that Greed was his friend, and a good one at that, to go through all this for his sake._


	9. Chapter 9

"Yeah, that's right. Don't stop," Greed sighed, feeling the pleasure shooting up his spine and leaned back in the big armchair.

He couldn't say – and he honestly didn't care – if Sandra's skills at managing "Crown" were up to par, but Greed would never deny that she possessed a very talented mouth.

She had taken a shine to him soon after he had... _appropriated_ the hotel, but since every single time he had been here it was in Envy's company, nothing had come out of it. Until now.

No.

Forget Envy. At least for now.

Gotta relish the moment. Gotta live for that.

That's why he was sitting there, in the penthouse, enjoying the warm autumn evening and the dedication of the hotel manager. Even a Homunculus needed to unwind every once in a while, and Greed had had enough of worrying.

He didn't even know where Envy was, and perhaps that was for the best. At least for now.

As he watched Sandra's blonde head bobbing up and down in his lap, Greed allowed himself a smirk of self-satisfaction.

He still had it.

All it had taken was a bit of flirting and a few glasses of wine before the end of the work day, and she was down on her knees, worshiping her new boss. She was a curious little thing, asking him about the story behind his name, which she had assumed was some sort of a moniker, and how he knew Mr. Finkel, the previous owner and why had he gifted "Crown" to Greed, and so on, and on, and on. She hadn't asked about Envy. After a while he had had enough and found a better use for Sandra's mouth.

He was so engrossed in the sensation that when Envy and Bido walked in, he needed a second to actually get his bearings and process everything at once.

Fuck. He got caught with his pants down. Literally.

 _Fuckfuckfuckfuuuuck!_

Wait... _Bido?!_ Alive, and in Central? With Envy?

WHAT?

Without even thinking about it, Greed shoved Sandra away, pulled his leather trousers up and hauled her out of the penthouse, past Envy and Bido, not even registering her complaints and questions.

"Get the fuck out," he growled before almost tossing her into the hallway and slamming the door closed.

He stood still for a moment, feeling his Adam's apple bobbing up and down in his throat, much like...

Crap...

Greed turned and looked at Envy.

He expected utter fury and hatred. He knew how to handle those.

He got nothing instead. Just a blank expression. Not even a spark of bitterness in their big, violet eyes.

He had no idea what to do with that. No idea what to say.

So Greed did the only thing he could think of. He compartmentalized. Deal with Envy and make it up to them later. For now, Bido.

His eyes shifted towards the gecko chimera. He looked gaunt, well... _more_ gaunt than he had been before, anyways, as if he hadn't slept and eaten well in a long time. His gaze flickered between Greed and Envy, and he looked terribly uncomfortable. Bido had always been the most socially awkward member of the Devil's Nest gang, and even Greed couldn't deny that this situation was exceptionally shitty and awkward.

Bido gulped and forced himself to look at him. "M-mister Greed," he said slowly, small voice quivering, "Thank God, I... I thought I was the only one left," he shook his slightly misshapen bald head, "Roa, Dolcetto, Martel, Ulchi... they're all dead, and I thought you might be too when the soldiers took your body away, but I had to come and see. Miss Envy brought me here," Greed saw Envy rolling their eyes at the honorific, but before they could say anything, Bido ran and gave Greed a clumsy hug.

Greed watched as Envy turned around and headed towards the balcony.

"Envy, wait, sweetheart," Greed untangled himself from Bido's spindly arms and moved after them, but they stopped and turned their head to give him the same hollow look they had graced him with earlier. "What's going on?"

"Don't say I never gave you anything," Envy smirked mirthlessly as they opened the doors and stepped out.

And then, in a flash of red light that glimmered beautifully against the setting sun, they changed their form and suddenly a large, black raven flew away from "Crown"'s penthouse.

Greed stared after it until even his enhanced vision could no longer see them.

He could feel the emotions warring inside. Relief that at least one of the chimeras had survived Dublith. Awe that _Envy_ of all people would have made the effort to spare Bido and bring him to Greed.

And guilt.

That was the real bitch.

He had never felt guilty about anything before. He was Greed. He was made to want and to take. No remorse, no regret and no guilt. But as his throat constricted and his gut clenched painfully, he recognized the feeling and he suddenly felt like a rotten bastard.

It was so much easier to humiliate, betray and degrade those you cared about than it was to admit... what, exactly?

Greed lifted his left hand and looked at the Ouroboros mark on its back. A dragon eating its own tail.

How fitting.

He heard Bido shuffling his feet behind him.

"I really am an asshole, aren't I, Bido?" Greed asked without turning.

"Errr..." Bido hesitated, "I'm just glad you're okay, Mister Greed," he said finally.

Greed sighed and turned around.

"Tell me everything," he said.

It didn't take nearly as long as Greed thought it would have. Half an hour later they were sitting on the balcony, staring at the darkened sky, silently remembering their old comrades.

"What happened to their bodies?" Greed finally asked softly as he reached to pour some wine in Bido's glass.

"I... I'm not sure," the chimera lowered his eyes, the lizard tail twitching sadly underneath him. "I think the soldiers just dumped them somewhere and burned them."

Greed's fist clenched and the glass shattered in his hand. He hissed at the sting of the wine when it made contact with the cuts. He began removing the pieces of glass as his skin started knitting itself back.

"Never thought you would turn out to be the reckless one," Greed declared as he pulled out the last piece and stared at it, starlight reflected in glass and blood. "Coming to Central is one thing, but to get lost in the lair... There are a million ways to die there, and none of them are pleasant, believe me."

"I... I know," Bido nodded, "But I couldn't just leave you for dead here."

"You're a good guy, Bido," Greed clapped him lightly on the shoulder. It felt bony and weak. "I'm glad you didn't die there."

"I guess I'm lucky Miss Envy found me," Bido said simply and drank.

Greed _tsked_. "Yeah, _that_ one is a mystery I'll have to unravel later," he shrugged and took a swig straight out of the bottle since he no longer possessed a glass. "Trust me when I say this, but Envy should have been one of the worse things to stumble upon there. I have no idea why you're still alive and unharmed, to be completely honest."

The chimera just blinked at Greed for a second, "I m-mean, I _said_ I was looking for you. That must have been why she spared me. I told her we're friends."

Greed let out a halfhearted chuckle. "First of all, Envy is not a girl, Bido," he said.

"Oh..."

"Second, and more important, saying that you're with me should have gotten you killed even harder. Things... are not great between me and Envy right now."

" _Oh_..."

Greed felt a spark of annoyance. "You got something to say, gecko man?"

"It's... it's not my place," Bido lowered his eyes and drank his wine.

"Just spit it out," Greed waved a hand, irritated.

"Well... errr... I really don't know lots about your past, Mister Greed," he shrugged, "You never told us much about the other ones like you. The other Homunculuses."

"Homunculi," Greed corrected him absent-mindedly.

"Yes, that," Bido nodded eagerly, "But from what I could see, you mean a lot to Miss... Mister... well, to _Envy_ ," he leaned forward to look at Greed, "And, well, earlier... err.. you know..."

"Yes, I know," he took a deep breath and got up. He looked down at Bido. "Stay here. I'll tell the staff to bring you something to eat."

"Where are you going, Mister Greed?" Bido sounded worried.

"I have to speak with Envy," Greed answered sincerely.

* * *

That turned out to be easier said than done.

Envy was nowhere to be found, and Greed knew all the places in the lair where they would hide when feeling dejected.

At the end he had to turn to his last resort.

"Pride!" Greed eventually shouted, his voice echoing in the empty underground darkness. "Get here, I need to talk to you!"

For a moment nothing happened. And then the blackness around the lamp Greed had brought specifically to provide his eldest sibling with a light source started moving, and the shadows were suddenly circling around him. It reminded him of a predator stalking its prey. Greed swallowed and reminded himself to be smart about this.

 _You seem to think I'm your butler or something, Greed,_ Pride's disembodied voice sneered from everywhere and nowhere at once. _What do you want? Be quick about it, I have things to do._

"Where is Envy?" It was best to jump straight to the point. Pride had absolutely no taste for beating around the bush. If he told you to be quick about it, you were quick about it. "I can't find them anywhere."

 _Away,_ Pride answered simply, almost giving the impression of a shrug with just his tone.

"Away where?" Greed pressed on the issue, careful to keep his voice humble, much as it displeased him. It was never a good idea to be snotty to Pride the Arrogant.

He felt Pride's cold, shadowy tendrils slithering up his shoulders and throat. Greed braced himself for the pain and didn't flinch when the skin on his jaw was suddenly cut open.

Pride's shadows were sharper than the sharpest human razor.

 _You presume too much, Greed._

"Look," he lifted a hand in a placating gesture as the red light of his Stone started sizzling around his face. "I just need to speak with Envy, that's all. It's between us, it has nothing to do with the plan or anything like that."

 _I thought as much,_ Pride sounded vaguely reproachful. _But believe it or not, little brother, some of us care about the work we're doing more than we do about our personal affairs._

Greed knew what he had to do. It wasn't easy.

But nothing that was worth it was ever easy, right?

"Please," he bit the word out. Pride loved it when people begged and the satisfied hum that reverberated in the dark as his shadows retreated from Greed's face proved that. "Just do me this one favor. I've never asked anything of you, after all."

The shadows were silent for a moment.

And then a few immaterial eyes appeared in the darkness, piercing Greed under their glare.

 _A favor for a favor. How about that, Greed?_

He sighed. Did he even have a choice?

"Very well," Greed nodded. "So, where is Envy?"

The eyes squinted at him. _I sent Envy to the North,_ Pride said. _Things are moving fast. Kimblee failed to recapture Dr. Marcoh and Scar bested him in combat._ He sounded annoyed. _General Raven went to Briggs to bring things in order, but it seems that the fool babbled too much and Armstrong had to kill him._

"Wait, what?" Greed was confused. "Armstrong? The big bald guy with the mustache?" That made no sense whatsoever.

 _No, you cretin, I'm talking about his sister, the Ice Queen. She's with us now and is coming to Central to take Raven's place._ Ah, that was more reasonable. The big shots in the military were always ready to backstab each other to climb higher. _She was supposed to keep the Elric brats under lock and key at Briggs until Kimblee could get them to help him carve the final Crest of Blood there, but they managed to slip away, as usual. I suspect some sort of foul play with Scar, personally._ Pride seemed really brassed off about the whole debacle. That alone was worth it. _Luckily,_ the shadows drawled, _one of Kimblee's men managed to make contact with us. We know where Marcoh is, and I sent Envy to take care of it._ _Are you pleased now?_

Greed took a deep breath, forcing himself to _not_ fly off the handle. The way Pride told it, the Elrics had turned the plans about the North into a mess and now Envy was going right in the center of it.

He had a bad feeling about this.

What if Envy was killed?

The last they would have seen of Greed was...

Goddammit!

Silently cursing his own nature, Greed composed himself.

"I'm going there too," he said, _extremely_ calmly, "It's better to have two of us there."

 _See, that's just the thing_ , suddenly a fanged mouth appeared in the blackness before Greed and grinned at him. _A favor for a favor, I said. You agreed. Now it's my turn._

Greed clenched his teeth. "What do you want?"

 _Well, it's less of a favor and more of an order,_ Pride let out a soft, sinister chuckle. _Once the Crest of Blood at Briggs is carved and Sloth is done with the circle, he will go back to Central to guard Father until the Promised Day comes. But we're not quite there yet, and even I can't be everywhere at once. So, Greed, you are not going anywhere. Envy is going to kill Scar and bring Marcoh – and the Elrics too, if they're involved – back. And_ you _will do nothing but stay here and do your duty to Father._

* * *

 _Talk about unfortunate timing, right?_

 _Couple of minor things:_

 _\- Bido appears here maybe about 10 or so episodes earlier than he did in the show when GreedLing killed him. I'm not sure why he got to Central so late, but for the purpose of the AU let's just assume he managed to travel faster or something._

 _\- General Armstrong is not a villain, of course, but she did try to convince the brass that she's on their side for a while, and Pride's comments about how she's "with them now" reflect that. Remember, unlike readers/viewers, characters are neither omniscient nor omnipresent. Not even Pride is._

 _\- Greed is gonna be Greed. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. In this chapter, it was for worse._

 _Peace!_


	10. Chapter 10

Envy hated the North at first sight.

It wasn't the howling wind or the cruel bite of the cold. The elements meant nothing for a Homunculus. They were a mere inconvenience at most.

It was the snow.

And not because of the annoying way it crunched beneath their feet and slowed their progress, nor because of the never-ending flurries that obstructed their vision and stuck to their clothes.

The problem was the color.

Pretty much everything was white.

And there was something about that that made them feel uneasy.

Envy had no idea where this had come from. They have never had an aversion to white before, or to any other color. It was stupid and it made no sense.

Then again, what did these days?

Compared to everything else that was gnawing at their very core – the unwanted and frightening depths of emotions about their siblings, the inexplicable and growing resentment towards Father's callous goals... hell, even the fact that they had not tortured that idiotic chimera to death and had brought him to Greed instead... well, the way they felt about the color of the snow shouldn't have even registered.

But it was no use.

It was like it reminded them of something painful and monumentally important, and yet they had no idea what it meant. It was strange and frustrating. And a little unnerving.

The journey from Central had been long and uneventful, and it had left them with a lot of time to think. To think thoughts they had never considered before.

For example, they began mulling over the implications behind their mission.

Normally they would have relished the opportunity to hunt down the cockroaches that had given the Homunculi so much trouble. Pride wanted Scar dead, and Marcoh and the Elric brothers back in Central. And Envy should have gladly jumped at the opportunity, if only to teach Marcoh a painful lesson about disobedience.

They found themselves utterly indifferent towards the prospect. But bringing him and the Elrics back meant that Father's plans would be furthered and they would all be one step closer to a successful Promised Day.

Only problem was, Envy didn't know if that was a good thing or not anymore.

* * *

Zampano was a bad actor.

On the train ride to Asbec, Envy had reached the conclusion that this whole thing was likely a trap, and when the guy rushed to greet them, they realized they were right.

He had the whole act wrong. His body language and the look in his eyes behind the round glasses weren't in sync, his words sounded rehearsed and, overall, he just wasn't convincing. At all.

Not that Envy even needed to notice all of that.

The simple truth was that Kimblee's men were just not competent enough to pull this off. Their gullible nature, readiness to follow orders while being unfit to be leaders in their own right and mediocre intelligence were all well-recorded in the army archives and psychological evaluations... and were actually why they had been chosen to be turned into chimeras.

Had the call come from Kimblee himself, Envy would have likely fallen for it. Unlike Zampano and his partner Jerso, Zolf actually possessed the power and the cunning to corner the errant sacrifices and their friends. But the Crimson Alchemist was nowhere to be found, and Zampano was not Kimblee.

The warthog chimera had turned traitor. Jerso was probably in the same boat.

But the trap they were cooking up worked just as well for Envy's goals here. The important thing was to get to Marcoh and the Elrics. Everything else, the chimeras, Scar... that didn't matter at all.

Eventually Zampano led them to the outskirts of the Ishvalan refugee camp where the runaways were supposedly hiding. Envy had assumed the form of an Ishvalan youth. Just to keep up appearances. They knew that Zampano was herding them to the trap, and Marcoh and his cohorts knew that their prey was coming. It was a farce, but a necessary one.

And so Envy finally found themselves staring at Marcoh across a bare, white field.

To say that the old man looked different would have been an understatement. Something bad must have happened to him after Scar busted him out of the lair because, even at this distance, Envy could see that his face looked... well, _melted_.

A memory came unbidden inside their head.

It was the day after Greed took "Crown". The two of them had woken up late after a night of murder and passion, and Envy had – belatedly – remembered that the prisoner in the lair hadn't been fed in at least two full days. They always forgot just how long could humans go without nourishment, and Marcoh was supposed to be important, so off they went.

Greed had decided to tag along. After he had gotten the hotel and the casino, he had no interest in actually running them, so he had nothing better to do, he claimed with a laugh.

When the two of them opened the door to Marcoh's cell and carried the tray with food inside, the first thing Envy saw was the old doctor's eyes. At the time, this horrible, stricken expression that seemed to be permanently stuck on his stupid wrinkled face had annoyed them greatly and they had proceeded to taunt him mercilessly under Greed's uncaring, sardonic gaze.

They never could understand this man's distress. Even back during the war, when he made the Philosopher's Stone, he had looked just as miserable. But as far as Envy was concerned, Marcoh always had a way out. He was just too cowardly to take it. Humans and their contradictions, right?

But now he seemed... changed, and not because of his disfigurement. His posture oozed confidence, shoulders squared and spine straight. And his eyes – well, the one that still remained – no longer held guilt and fear.

The determination in Marcoh's stare was so fierce that it gave Envy pause for a second.

Only for a second.

"Who is this man with you?" Marcoh called out to Zampano when the two began closing in.

Without waiting for the chimera's answer, Envy put an end to the charade and reassumed their favorite form.

"Go ahead," they shrugged at Zampano over the red crackling light that washed through their body, "Rejoin your friends. But next time keep in mind that you really aren't a good actor."

"So you _are_ aware that we lured you into a trap, is that the way of it, Envy?" Marcoh gave them an appraising look as the startled chimera ran towards him and Jerso.

"Hello to you too, doctor. I do like the new look, it suits you," Envy grinned crookedly at him, then looked around, exaggerating their body language. "So... want to tell me where have you hidden Scar and the Elrics?"

Marcoh simply smiled.

And the snow underneath Envy's feet exploded, throwing them off balance. They yelped in shock at the surprising attack and tried to step back, but then the snow and the cold air around them were suddenly transmuted in a blue gleam (How? Marcoh was just standing there and wasn't doing any alchemy whatsoever!) and before they could react, they found themselves inside a cage made of sharp, thick icicles.

Envy's ire felt boiling and demanding under their skin.

They burst out of the icy cage, ignoring the pain, and snarled at the old alchemist. "I came here to talk, Marcoh, so _don't_ push your luck!"

A cold voice, colder than the all the blizzards in Briggs, spoke behind them. "What makes you think that we have anything to talk about?"

Shit.

Scar.

Envy whirled around to face him but, to their astonishment, they were too slow.

All they saw was a brown, calloused hand closing in around their face, swift and deadly as a viper.

And then pain. A pain worse than anything they had felt before, scorching their whole body from the inside out.

They tried to twist away from him, desperate and horrified, but it was no use.

The last thing Envy felt before they died was their own skull splitting open as their head was deconstructed away.

* * *

When they came back to their senses they were lying in the snow, the crimson light of their Stone frantically repairing the damage the Ishvalan had inflicted.

They started gulping air down greedily, the small chest of their favorite form heaving feverishly. When their blurry vision focused on Marcoh's disfigured face mere inches above theirs they tried to claw their way back in panic.

Only to look up when they bumped the back of their head into Scar's boots. The grim-faced Ishvalan who had killed them just moments ago was staring impassively down at them, his red eyes narrowed and his right hand visibly tense and ready to strike again.

"You said you wanted to talk, Envy," Dr. Marcoh said and they turned their eyes to him, trying to get a hold of themselves. "So talk. But before you do, think about something. You made me create Philosopher's Stones for you. Has it ever occurred to you that an alchemist who can make something, can also learn how to... unmake it?"

The threat couldn't be more explicit if he tried. That wretch was likely capable of harming them far worse than Scar ever could. Envy swallowed nervously.

"You're wasting your time, Marcoh," Scar said evenly. "Let's just kill it and get on our way."

The doctor seemed to be considering it, and then Envy heard another voice, child-like and with an odd hollow echo to it.

"Wait!" Alphonse Elric exclaimed. "I want to hear what Envy has to say first."

They couldn't help but snort lightly. Leave it to that kid to be the voice of mercy. "Hey there, Tin Can," they slowly sat up in the snow, every move as controlled and non-threatening as possible considering that they had Marcoh and Scar far too close for comfort. Then they looked at Alphonse's large, metal form. "Where's the Pipsqueak?"

"Hey!" A girl's voice boomed next to him and Envy turned to stare at the same little Xingese brat who had accompanied Scar in the fight at Father's lair when Envy, Greed and Fullmetal escaped from Gluttony's belly. She seemed angry... and so did the diminutive panda that sat on her shoulder. What kind of circus had they barged into, for God's sake? "Don't speak to Sir Alphonse like that, Homunculus!"

" _Sir_ Alphonse?" Envy couldn't help but cackle softly at that. And then it dawned on them. "You two did the alchemy back then, didn't you? I wondered how was Marcoh able to transmute without lifting a finger. It wasn't Marcoh at all, right?" They glanced at the doctor's destroyed face. "Clever. Annoying, but clever."

"We're not here to trade barbs and small talk, Envy," Marcoh said calmly. "If you have something worthwhile to say, say it. And if not..."

They huffed angrily.

This whole situation was _really_ not to their liking, with the filthy creatures looking down at them and behaving as if they held Envy's life in their shit-stained hands, and the worst part was that it was all on their own volition. They could assume their true form and just squash all of them before they could blink, but with Scar and Marcoh around it was going to be a close call and utterly counterproductive to what they were hoping to achieve here.

So they looked at Alphonse and said two very simple words.

"Equivalent exchange."

* * *

 _What is Envy talking about?_

 _This is set in episode 43._

 _See you next time!_

 _Peace!_


	11. Chapter 11

Greed was well on his way of getting more drunk than he'd ever been in at least a century and half.

Since the body of a Homunculus was much more resilient than that of a human, and it possessed the ability to automatically repair any damage inflicted upon it, he needed a lot of booze to get truly and honestly drunk. So Greed was making the owner of the dingy bar he currently resided at a very wealthy man.

The alcohol tasted awful and it was so strong that it made his eyes water when it went down. Just what the doctor ordered.

Greed had been here for hours now, but when he came in and sat in front of the bar, he never made the effort to actually notice the place. He was here for a purpose, and that purpose didn't include staring at the decor. He looked blearily around. Oh, man... This dump looked even worse than the Devil's Nest, and the Devil's Nest had been located in a hick town in the ass end of nowhere.

Or maybe it was the booze that made it seem so bad. He had been quite fond of the Devil's Nest, after all.

The bartender had tried to chat him up, but Greed was not interested in conversation. As far as he was concerned, all the interaction that was needed was when the guy gave him more bottles and Greed gave him more money. The murmur of the other drunkards who polluted the bar with their presence was tiresome, but he was noticing it less and less the more shitfaced he got.

He raised his glass only to find it empty. That wasn't going to do. Greed reached for the bottle and to his horror discovered that it was finished too.

"Hey, pops," he slurred loudly to get the barkeep's attention and showed him the empty bottle. "Bring us annuver one, will ya?"

The man frowned at him and stepped closer. "I think it's best you give it a little rest, buddy," he declared.

Greed just blinked at him, needing a moment to comprehend the oaf's words.

"You're cuttin'me off?" No, no, no, this wasn't good at all. His body needed a constant flow of alcohol to actually stay inebriated, or else the Stone was going to start working its magic and he was going to be sober in no time. Greed growled in irritation as he reached across the bar and fumbled to grasp the guy by the wrist. "D'you have any idea who I am? People don't... cut me off," Greed's vision was blurred and let the barkeep go to rub at his eyes. "People do wha'eer I tell 'em to do. Got it? Now," he glared at the sweaty human, his purple eyes drunk and feverish. "Bring. Me. More."

"Just don't come cryin' when you end up in the hospital," the guy said gruffly and slammed another bottle in front of Greed's face. He immediately lit up. "Or dead in a ditch, more like," he muttered under his breath.

Greed was already ignoring him and filling his glass to the brim with the cheap moonshine. The smell burnt his nostrils as he started gulping it down.

"Problems with the wife or somethin', huh?" A man's voice said next to him and Greed turned to see that one of the human patrons had come closer to him, his nose red and his yellow teeth bared in a drunken smile.

"Or something," Greed finished the glass and poured himself another one. "Get lost."

"Wha', she fuckin' someone else while yer getting fucked up, eh?" The drunkard laughed and clapped Greed's back clumsily. "Hey," he frowned, "Yer not laughin'. She dead or what?"

Greed just growled, got up on his shaky legs, grabbed the guy by the back of the neck and smashed his head against the bar. He heard a satisfying _crunch_ before the bartender yelled something unintelligible.

And then the brawl began.

* * *

Eventually Greed found himself stumbling down the narrow streets that littered Central's less presentable neighborhoods as the rain drummed all around him. The storm and the late hour made the city seem empty.

His clothes were soaked but, hey, at least the rain had washed away most of the blood.

You gotta count your blessings, right?

A lightning lit up the stormy clouds above and the grey buildings around him, and the night was back, black and wet, and cold. He had long since sobered up, largely thanks to the fight at that bar, and wished he hadn't.

Because now he could think.

Now he could remember.

He remembered Wrath's impassive face as he told him how Envy hasn't made contact in days. How, by all accounts, they should have reached Asbec long ago and should have encountered the runaways. The last time the Führer had heard of Envy was when they had arrived at the hub at North City and were going to make their way from there.

Wrath had concluded that Envy was likely dead but, hey, Kimblee had used some Drachmans to carve the final Crest of Blood at Briggs so all was well, right?

The only reason why Greed hadn't ripped Wrath's head off right there and then was because Pride was slithering, shapeless and ominous, in the shadows around the old man's underground throne and Father himself was staring expectantly at his children as he listened to Wrath's report.

The old man was much more interested in hearing about the Crest of Blood than he was in wondering about Envy's fate.

What a shocker.

A thunder echoed in the sky as Greed kept repeating to himself that Envy wasn't dead. They couldn't be. They might be in trouble, or they might be too busy chasing the Elrics across the country to give Wrath a call, or something – _anything_ – like that, but they weren't dead. No, sir. _Not_ dead.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he never even registered the dark, cloaked figure that leapt from rooftop to rooftop in the rain, following him.

Was it foolish that Greed thought that he'd somehow feel it if Envy had died?

Yes. Yes, it was. He hadn't felt a thing when Mustang killed Lust, he found out about it hours after it had already happened. The Homunculi had many powers, but sensing their own kind's demise was not one of them.

Then again, this was different. Envy was different.

He remembered how their huge purple eyes had lit up the first time he kissed them. It was so long ago... They had been inexperienced, and clumsy, and had no confidence in their abilities as a lover at all despite all the loud bravado, but none of that had mattered. Not to him. To be the first one to pick this fruit, so sweet and so forbidden, to be given something that nobody else in the whole world had ever been given before, was a reward of its own for Greed the Avaricious.

Greed also remembered how they had stiffened, their whole body growing still and cold, whenever they found out how he'd had fun somewhere else.

With someone else.

The first few times it happened, they fled from him and sulked for days, sometimes weeks. Then they would leave the lair in secret and, no matter how well Greed had managed to hide his tracks, they always got to his latest conquest and took their vengeance.

Always on the girls. Never on Greed.

That used to make him so angry.

Now it just made him sick. If Envy was sadistic and psychotic in their payback, what did that made him when he continued to feed human girls into that bottomless pit of jealousy and revenge, never stopping to think about what was going to happen to them once he had received his pleasure?

Eventually, or so he used to tell himself, Envy grew more stable about it. They became more likely to confront Greed instead of hiding away to boil in their own pain, sometimes even turning their rage into physical violence against him. Which was fine.

But they never stopped coming after those Greed cheated with.

Wind the clock a century forward, and they hadn't even been angry when they brought Bido to "Crown" and caught Greed in the act.

Had he finally broken Envy? Was there a limit of how much infidelity could the personification of jealousy take?

Greed supposed that a human in his predicament, if he felt the same way, might wonder about his own nature. _Why am I like this?_ , or some other drivel in that vein.

Greed knew why he was like this. It was in the name, after all. His vice was demanding and all-consuming. There was a part of him that had wished it could be faithful to Envy, that had never really felt good about betraying them and that had wanted them to be enough.

But enough simply wasn't possible for him. Enough was an antithesis to his very being. Greed wanted more. Always. More power, more money, more pleasure, more fun, more women, more _life_. He couldn't help it. He couldn't stop it. He couldn't ignore it. He was addicted to the act of wanting itself. It was what drove him. What made him get up from the proverbial bed every morning.

Two hundred plus years of wanting and taking... and Greed felt as empty as the day the old man created him.

He stopped in front of a drain and watched as the streams of water disappeared into the blackness below.

"I fucking hate you," he whispered, rain falling around him and his voice thick with emotion, "Why did you make me?"

He heard the splash of wet footsteps coming from behind a second before he felt the tip of the blade at his side.

"We meet again, Greed."

"Hey, kid," Greed sighed without turning to look at his future assailant. "Wish I could say that I missed your company, but in all honesty, I haven't even thought about you in weeks."

"Move," he felt Ling Yao's hand pushing him forward. "The alley. I'd rather not do this in the open."

"I'd rather you won't bother me at all," Greed grumbled but did as the Xingese princeling wanted.

It made no difference if he was going to kill the kid in the street or in a dark alley.

It was going to be a welcome distraction either way.

Once they started walking towards the narrow gap between the buildings, Greed lightly tilted his head sideways and back to throw a glance at Ling. The prince's slanty eyes shone with foolish determination.

"What did you do with my car, by the by?" Greed asked, "You better not have crashed it somewhere."

Ling smirked, "No, last time I saw it, it seemed fine. Should be somewhere in the desert by now."

"Oh _come on,_ " Greed's shoulders sloped slightly.

"Alright, stop," Ling commanded him. "Turn around."

"If you're trying to rob me, you're doing it all wrong," Greed said dryly as he turned and faced the kid.

The kid gave him a weird look. "I'm not here to rob you, Greed," he said seriously.

Greed shrugged and said, "It was a joke, kiddo," and he leaned his back against the wall of the building behind him. "But it does beg the question of what are you doing. You _know_ you can't kill me, and that little knife of yours won't do you much good in a fight."

"You're right," Ling nodded. "I can't kill you. That's what I want to talk about."

Greed merely raised an eyebrow at him.

"I came in Amestris to search for immortality," the kid said. "To find the Philosopher's Stone."

Greed couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Life is full of irony, isn't it?" He spread his arms wide, staring right at Ling's eyes. "Well, you just found one. Now what?"

"Now you tell me how to create it."

"And why the hell would I do that?"

Ling took a deep breath. "Lan Fan lost her arm because of your brother Wrath. Some in Xing would say that your family owes mine a blood debt."

Greed burst out laughing, nearly doubling over. He needed almost half a minute to compose himself. "Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at you," Greed had to stop talking because another fit cracked him up. "It's just... heh... where do you think you are and who do you think you're talking to?"

The Xingese boy scowled at him and opened his mouth to retort, but Greed interrupted him angrily, all the merriment he felt a moment before gone, as if the rain had washed it away. "You are not in Xing anymore," Greed sneered, "And I am not a human. I don't give a shit about what you think Wrath owes you. I hate Wrath and I'm going to kill him one day. I am _Greed_ , kid. Avarice embodied. I don't owe you a damn thing. If you want something from me," he pushed himself from the wall he was leaning against and looked down at Ling, "you have to learn to speak my language. Now," Greed clapped his hands in front of the kid's face, casually covering his skin with the Ultimate Shield, " _Why_ do you want the Stone?"

Ling gulped, unsure. "Because it's the only way to win my father's throne."

"Ah!" Greed grinned. "Now we're talking. Ambition. Hunger for power. I can work with those."

That made the princeling angry, for some reason. He roughly pushed Greed back into the wall and grabbed the collar of his sleeveless jacket as another thunder hit the furious sky above.

"Power?" He hissed in Greed's face. "You think I'm doing this for _power_? I'm doing it because this is the only way for my clan to survive. I'm doing it because Lan Fan nearly died for it," his youthful face was twisted by such utter anger that it gave Greed pause. "I can't return empty-handed. _I can't!_ " Ling exhaled heavily, visibly trying to compose himself, "When I fought Wrath, he told me that the people don't matter. _That's_ the kind of king your brother is. But not every human is as ugly as you Homunculi. Lan Fan trusted me, and I won't let her down."

He let Greed go and took a step back. The haunted look on his face shook something in Greed.

"You want power," he whispered, "You want a throne... but you have a _purpose_..." He sighed and lowered his head. "I'm sorry, kid."

"What for?" Ling sounded tired all of a sudden.

"You want the Philosopher's Stone to save your people," Greed smiled. Ling's predicament seemed perversely sadistic even to him. "But in order to create one, you have to sacrifice them."

* * *

 _Greed is not feeling well in this one._

 _In canon, when he was reborn, Ling had a huge influence on him, whether he realized it or not. Greed's existential problem, IMO and all,_ _is that he's a dog that's chasing cars. He can catch one, but has no idea what to do with it. Hence everything he gets by taking it (whether by force or by charm) is only superficial. In the show, sharing a body with Ling really helped him mature and change for the better._

 _Obviously, here he'll have to take the longer and harder road to get there._

 _But I feel like you can't really have a Greed fic without Ling in it, in one form or another._


	12. Chapter 12

It was odd, coming back to Liore. The last time Envy had been here, it was to help out Lust and Gluttony with the local Crest of Blood after the Elrics had thwarted their siblings' pawn, a corrupt priest named Cornello. They had found the task to be amusing enough, even though impersonating that fat old sack of shit had left a bit of a bad taste in their mouth.

To return here alongside Alphonse Elric felt… a little surreal, to say the least.

The journey south could have been better. Envy wasn't accustomed to be around a group of humans for so long.

The Tin Can was tolerable, and they were at least somewhat familiar with him. Zampano, Jerso and Yoki kept their distance from Envy, which was perfect as far as they were concerned. Even better, Marcoh, Mei Chang and Scar had not gone with them. Those three Envy could live happily without. Scar could barely control his murderous nature, now that he knew that the Homunculi had engineered Ishval's downfall, and he had made it very clear that killing Envy once was not nearly enough for him. And Dr. Marcoh was worse even than the Ishvalan, now that he was free from his cell beneath Central and that he knew how to destroy a Stone; Envy wasn't sure if they didn't prefer the old, annoying and defeated Marcoh to the new, disfigured and emboldened one.

The problem, funnily enough, turned out to be the little girl.

Well, she was of an age with the Elrics, so Envy supposed she was technically a young woman, but when you're a few decades shy of two hundred years old the lines tend to blur a bit.

The point was, Winry Rockbell bugged the hell out of them.

It had been the first night after they departed from Asbec.

Alphonse had insisted that the two of them had to go over everything in order for him to trust the Homunculus. He had made it clear that he wouldn't commit to anything before he was completely sure that Envy was not leading him into some sort of a trap.

Oh, the irony.

Still, his proposition was sensible and logical. If Envy was in his shoes, they wouldn't be overly generous with their trust either.

The two of them, the immortal Homunculus who could change their shape at will and the boy's soul haunting a hollow suit of ancient armor, had stared at each other in silence for a long while then, neither wishing to be the one to make the first step.

Finally, Envy's patience broke and they glowered at Alphonse.

"Fine!" They had huffed and had crossed their arms in front of their chest, "Yes, you're right. The circle goes through Liore. And yes, we carved a Crest of Blood there. Now what?"

The Tin Can had nodded, making a faint metallic sound as he did so. "What if we simply broke it?" He asked. "We could collapse a part of it, right? It would be the same as erasing the line of a normal transmutation circle."

"Wouldn't work," Envy had shaken their head. "My brothers Pride and Sloth are in charge of the tunnel and they would simply clear the rubble. And regardless, if we're stupid enough to enter, they will kill us. Well, they would kill _me_ and your friends here," they had gestured towards the other compartment of the train where Winry, Yoki and the chimeras slept. "You they will take to Father to await the Promised Day."

Alphonse had tilted his helmet at them. "Is one of your brothers a giant?" Envy had frowned at that. What was the Tin Can getting at? "Black hair, not quite as long as yours, moves kind of slowly and doesn't pay much attention to what happens around him?"

"Yeah, that sounds like Sloth," Envy had felt their throat constrict. If Alphonse had seen Sloth, did that mean that… "How do you know of him?" They asked, trying not to show weakness through their voice.

Alphonse had hesitated. "He… um, he attacked Briggs from under the ground while we were there. General Armstrong had him doused with fuel and tossed him from the wall – there was a blizzard outside – so he'd freeze."

" _WHAT?!_ "

"Shhh!" Alphonse had raised his hands placatingly, "You'll wake the others!"

Envy had jumped out of their seat, face twisted in outrage, " _This wasn't the damn deal, you bodyless bastard!_ " They had growled harshly at the suit of armor. "My help in exchange for their lives. _That_ 's what we agreed to!"

"Hey! It's not our fault that we had to defend ourselves!" Alphonse's ire had risen and he had shouted back at Envy. "And in any case General Raven arrived at the fort soon after and ordered Armstrong to thaw your brother out and put him back in the tunnel. So there!"

"Don't you get mouthy with me, you wretched bug!"

"Don't _you_ flip out just because you're afraid!"

"DON'T YOU TWO KNOW THAT PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP AROUND HERE?!"

Startled, Envy and Alphonse had turned to stare at Winry who had looked almost comically displeased, her blonde hair in disarray and her blue eyes shooting daggers at the Homunculus and the armored alchemist.

Alphonse had immediately deflated. Envy decided that he would have looked flustered and sheepish If he had had an actual body and a face.

"Uh, sorry, Winry," the Tin Can had offered meekly. Envy suspected that Greed's chimeras had used a similar tone around him back in Dublith.

A part of them was impressed that the girl apparently had at least one of the Elric brats well-whipped. A bigger part merely felt annoyed. Who was she to barge in on them and raise her voice? It wasn't like she was an alchemist or something, or in any way important for the Promised Day. She was just some insignificant little bitch from some God-forsaken little village, and she thought she could yell at _them_?

(Would Alphonse consider murdering his childhood friend a breach of protocol for their newly-minted alliance?)

(I mean, probably, yeah?)

So Envy had demonstrated great restraint and hadn't even said a single mean word to Winry, instead opting to just glare at her and simply leave the two of them and go to cool off on the outer platform of the passenger carriage.

They had lost track of time there, listening to the rhythmic sound of the train's wheels and gazing at the starry sky above.

"I get it, you know," a soft voice had said behind them, and it turned out that Winry could startle them a second time in a row. "Why you're worried about your brothers. I worry about Ed and Al all the time."

Envy had simply blinked at her for a few seconds, shocked. "Are you comparing yourself to me?" They had finally blurted out. And then had added, in that same surprised voice. "Do you realize I've killed people for much lesser insults?"

Oddly – or maybe not oddly at all – the threat hadn't deterred her all that much. It hadn't _pleased_ her, to be sure, but Envy had expected her to turn tail and run. Humans were supposed to be cowardly, simple creatures, and young girls like Winry even more so.

To their great distaste, Envy was struggling to learn that if there was one thing that should never surprise you about humans, it's their capacity to surprise you.

There's no way that there's no way. They wondered just how much insight did Greed actually have into humans? Him, and Lust and Envy had been the ones among the family to spend the most time in the mortal world before Wrath came along. But with Lust and Envy it had been nothing more than a chore, a means to an end to further Father's plans. For Greed it had been just a way to pass the time and indulge his whims. He had never minded the company of those inferior to him.

No.

Don't go there.

Not in front of Winry.

And then her expression had changed. Her scowl had softened, just for a second, but Envy was experienced enough with facial expressions and they saw it.

"Whatever," she had shrugged, "It's not like I _have_ to take your crap too. Ed and Al leave me plenty to deal with on their own. Have a nice night," she had added as she went back inside the train.

It had been weird, but for just a moment Envy had found themselves wanting to say something to her, something to take away the sting of their words and make her stay to keep them company.

They hadn't, of course.

Winry Rockbell was nothing but a lowly human and they didn't need her or her pitiful attempt to offer some misplaced kindness.

From that point on, Envy made sure to keep away from her. The rest of the journey to Liore had been somewhat lonely, but that was for the best.

* * *

The town was different than they remembered it. Much of it had been reduced to rubble when the Crest of Blood was carved, obviously, but it wasn't just that.

If Envy was inclined to think in a more idealistic and spiritual way, they would have said that there was an air of hope and renewal around it, a dramatic contrast to the foreboding zealotry they had helped spread before. A rebirth.

Envy, however, was not especially idealistic and spiritual and merely chalked it down to nothing but typical human pragmatism. Those who had lived through such a heavy turmoil simply had to bounce back, like animals after a wildfire in the woods. If they just broke down and refused to do anything to improve their lot, they would simply die. It was nothing more than an unconscious strategy of survival.

They tried not to stare too much at the scores of humans that were busy rebuilding Liore as their group made its way into the town. Alphonse had insisted that he wanted to take a look at the church of Leto where he and his brother had made a fool out of Cornello. Envy didn't see much point in it, but they had no reason to refuse him.

Eventually they all ended up in front of a food stall, just to shut up Yoki and the two chimeras who were insisting that they were starving.

To Envy's surprise, the woman who was in charge of it recognized the Tin Can and the two of them quickly started chatting like old friends.

Envy tuned the two of them out as they continued to look around, watching as the humans scuttled around like busy little ants. Finally they just shook their head and turned to look at the rest of their companions. Yoki had already seated himself in front of the food stall and was helping himself to a generous portion of broth that looked spectacularly unappetizing to Envy. They supposed the humans needed lots of simple, filling food to keep on working as hard as they seemed.

"Careful not to choke," they smirked at the balding conman as he began wolfing it down, "I once saw a man choke himself to death while he ate. His face turned purple and his eyes nearly jumped out of the orbits. It was a hoot."

Yoki promptly choked and started coughing, spilling hot broth all over his shirt. Envy cackled lightly at him, but moved to pat him on the back all the same.

And then a voice they knew almost as well as their own rang out behind them, and it made them turn their head sharply.

"Okay, Rose! These pots are as clean as they'll get! You have anything else you..." The newcomer suddenly shut up as he saw Alphonse.

Envy squeaked in terror and jumped away, almost shoving Yoki out of his stool.

What was Father doing here?!

How had he found them?!

WHY WAS HE DRESSED LIKE A STUPID HUMAN, APRON AND ALL?!

And then Alphonse muttered a word that didn't help at all.

"D-dad?"

Dad? That was _Alphonse's_ father? Not Envy's?

But... that made no sense. Envy knew that sometimes humans could look alike, but this was absurd. This was not a lookalike. This man's face, his voice... he was a living copy of Father.

A memory flew into their mind. Greed had noted that the Fullmetal Pipsqueak looked vaguely Xerxesian when the three of them had been stuck inside Gluttony's stomach.

As far as Envy could tell only Pride knew the full story of Father's past, but all Homunculi were aware that he had come from Xerxes and that he had been the force behind its fabled demise.

This could not be a mere coincidence. No way.

And then they remembered something else. It was when they had escaped from the false Gate of Truth. Edward and Alphonse had seemed startled by Father's appearance. At the time Envy hadn't paid much attention to it, their whole being had been shaken to the very core by the deconstruction Fullmetal had subjected them to in order to escape from Gluttony's belly. And when they had gathered their bearings, they had found themselves busy with much more pressing concerns than dwelling on something that had seemed singularly unimportant at the time.

It obviously wasn't.

When he briefly flicked his golden eyes towards them, Envy realized that they were staring at the man, mouth slightly agape.

"Alphonse," they said slowly and the Tin Can turned to look at them. If the suit of armor could have an expression, it probably would have been one of puzzlement. "Why does your father looks like an identical twin of mine?"

* * *

Eventually Van Hohenheim found them on the charred rooftop of a partially collapsed house.

"I suppose it can all be a little too much to digest at once," he said and they looked up at him as he seated himself next to Envy. "Even for a Homunculus."

Much like his face, his voice was the same as Father's, and that made them tense up, but now they could see that everything else about him was different. From the clothes to the body language.

It was oddly comforting.

"It's... difficult to wrap my head around it, yeah," they shrugged.

Envy wasn't sure exactly how long they had spent on the remains of the rooftop, but the sky had turned orange and the sun was nearly set. They must have been here for hours, going over everything that Van Hohenheim had explained to them and Alphonse, again and again, until nothing made sense anymore.

This man's blood had been used to give life to the entity they knew as Father – although Van Hohenheim merely referred to him as the Dwarf in the Flask, which was so monumentally disrespectful that they half expected Pride to suddenly burst out of some shadowy little corner and slaughter them all just for that insult.

It was funny, but Envy had always imagined that Xerxes' destruction had been something grandiose and awe-inspiring, heavenly fury that had been a testament to Father's cosmic power.

It turned out to be nothing more than deceit, the Dwarf in the Flask literally conning the Emperor of Xerxes into sacrificing his whole country. Granted, the cruelty of it was still impressive... but there had been nothing majestic about it. Humans had done all the work. Without them Father would have remained nothing but a dwarf in a flask.

The thought was terrifying.

If Father truly was as pathetic as Van Hohenheim described him, what did that make the seven Homunculi who were only parts of his being given their own forms?

Was Envy going to be capable of saving their siblings when the time came?

"Al told me about you," Van Hohenheim said, his voice even. "That you offered to help him. And why."

They shrugged, "Yeah, so what?" Their posture was confident and their voice brash. It was important to keep up a strong front, always. There were very few things that Envy hated more than to appear weak. It was especially important now.

Van Hohenheim was older than Envy, older than all of their siblings. Older than Amestris. Older even than Father.

They could not give him the satisfaction of admitting how lost and afraid they truly felt.

How alone.

Envy realized that they missed Greed. The thought was a painful stab.

It was one of the things they had come to realize before they left for the North.

It was never going to be.

It couldn't be.

Greed would never change. He wasn't capable of it. And neither was Envy.

Everything between them had been a lie. Envy had always known this. They both had been willing to indulge in it, to pretend they were something they weren't.

To pretend that their... relationship... had been anything but a twisted mockery of human love.

Neither of them was capable of love. Not the way the humans were.

On some level this made them furious. But mostly, it made them sad.

Bido, the chimera from Dublith, had done more for someone he (naively, but did that matter?) thought was a friend than a Homunculus ever would in his place.

It had been so tempting to dismiss it, to lie to themselves that it was just human stupidity or something, but Envy was tired of lying to themselves. The guy had all but thrown his life away by coming to the lair, and he hadn't even been sure that Greed was still alive.

It hadn't stopped him.

After that Envy had started seeing it in other humans too.

For all their capacity to be weak and corrupt, and selfish, and stupid, and disgusting, humans could also be much more. It sounded sappy and ridiculous, but some of them truly placed each other above everything else. The whole was bigger than the sum of its parts.

Thinking about it had nearly driven them mad when they traveled to the North.

It was then when they had finally made their decision.

If humans could do it, so could Envy.

If Father was willing to throw his children's lives away in pursuit of godhood, then Envy was going to do everything in their power to save their siblings. To show them that they didn't have to serve a dwarf in a flask who had just thrown its sins away.

They could almost hear Greed laughing heartily at the irony of it all.

"So what?" Van Hohenheim's voice tore them out of their brooding thoughts. "This is not something your kind does. The Dwarf did not care for anyone but itself. And from what I've seen of Pride, his... children weren't supposed to be different."

Yeah. The guy had faced Pride in the tunnels beneath Liore and had lived to tell the tale. That alone should have been enough to give them pause. But, as it had turned out, this story was pretty much insignificant compared to everything else Alphonse's father had revealed.

"Pride is an ass," Envy muttered and Van Hohenheim chuckled.

"And what about you?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm a regular little angel," Envy had raised a thin eyebrow at him. "I'm not doing it out of love for _your_ kind, you know."

"Hm," Van Hohenheim had stroked his blonde beard, looking thoughtfully at them. "In Xerxes," he said slowly, "they believed that there were seven sins that plagued the human soul."

"Gluttony, Lust, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Envy and Pride," they said, their voice bored, "I know. Our names are not given randomly."

"Yes," he nodded, "And Pride certainly seemed, well, _prideful_. What I meant was, what makes _you_ Envy? What are you envious of?"

Envy gulped, and then the words just left their mouth, blurted out before they could stop themselves.

"Of how you humans care. Of how you love."

They squeezed their eyes shut and lowered their head. Now, more than ever they needed to maintain control. Their hands shook lightly so they clenched their fists until their knuckles turned white.

How could something so simple hurt so much?

They heard Van Hohenheim sigh before they felt his big hand making contact with their shoulder.

In a flash they had jumped to their feet and had spun away from him.

"Don't!" Envy hissed, their eyes ablaze, "Don't you _dare!_ I don't want your pity! I _hate_ you humans!"

Van Hohenheim studied them, the last rays of the setting sun reflected in his glasses. He was silent for a long time as Envy tried to get their breathing under control.

"Well," he finally said and grunted as he got up and prepared to get down. "I've always thought that life is mostly about making the effort. The effort to get what you want, to be who you want to be. If four centuries in this world have taught me anything, it's that everything depends on us. We spend our lives holding our fate in our hands. Who knows, Envy?" he shrugged before he left, "It might turn out that, before you know it, you won't have a reason to envy us anymore."

* * *

 _Envy is probably OOC at this point. A part of it is inevitable, if I'm to be 100 % faithful to their character, it would be pretty much impossible to write any sort of story that has them care about ANYONE._

 _Obviously, the full realization of their nature is also not nearly as... suicidal as it was in the show. The situation here is also not nearly as terrifying and humiliating for them too, and in my mind that matters. It's one thing to admit something like that to yourself, it's another to get the revelation from an enemy while you're at your weakest._

 _At least that's *my* reasoning. I hope it works within the context of an AU where Envy saw the Gate of Truth and where they have feelings for Greed._


	13. Chapter 13

"We're doing it tonight," Greed declared.

"Why tonight?" Ling narrowed his eyes at him.

Greed resisted the urge to groan. He did not deserve this. The kid should have been thankful that he had decided to help him at all.

Instead Ling felt like it was his prerogative to question him every step of the way.

Really, Greed didn't need all this shit.

He leaned forward and looked the princeling right in the eye. "Pride and Gluttony are not in Central," he whispered. Father had sent them away from the capitol on some errand that Greed was not made privy to. "Me and Wrath are the only ones left right now. There _won't_ be a better time, kid."

"We should wait for Fu and Lan Fan," Ling insisted stubbornly, "They could be back any day now. The four of us will have a better chance."

"You said the same thing yesterday," Greed sighed. "And the day before. And the day before _that_ ," he glanced around the restaurant, listening to the clanking utensils and the chattering of the humans around, "Your friends could get to Central five minutes from now. Or five days. Or five weeks. We're not in control of that. Two more people won't make a difference if Pride gets back before them, kid."

The prince huffed lightly and slouched back in his chair. Then he nodded, his face suddenly solemn. "Alright, Greed. Tonight."

"Right," he lifted his glass and finished the last drops of the whiskey. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he gave Ling a lopsided smile. "I'll have to pay for you again, won't I, kid?" He chuckled as he reached into the inner pocket of his sleeveless jacket and tossed a small stack of bills on the table. "Mooching off of the embodiment of avarice... Sounds like a bad joke, ain't it?" Greed shrugged, "Come by the "Crown" hotel at about midnight. You know the place, right?"

The kid nodded and he got up and prepared to leave.

"Greed," Ling's voice stopped him in his tracks and he turned to look down at the prince. "I want to know... Why are you doing all of this? Why help me at all?"

Greed just eyed him for a moment, uncertain.

Because ever since Wrath said that Envy was probably dead, he was coasting along and going through the motions, mind foggy and in constant denial, his bitterness against his family rising more and more every single day.

Because Ling, naive and idealistic as he was, had something that Greed had never had in two centuries of living. An actual purpose. A purpose that steeled him and compelled him to keep going. Greed desperately needed a purpose right now.

He hated lying.

But that didn't mean that he always had to tell the _whole_ truth.

He didn't _have_ to spill his guts.

So he smirked down at Ling and put his hands in the pockets of his leather pants. "I figure it'd be sweet, having the future Emperor of Xing be in my debt," he laughed when he saw the kid's lips tightening. "I'm not known for my charity, buddy, what did you expect? See you at midnight," he added as he turned his back and left the busy restaurant.

* * *

As he ascended towards "Crown"'s penthouse, Greed leaned his back against the wall of the lift, suddenly struck by how ludicrous the whole affair was.

After their little tête-à-tête when he told Ling about the creation of a Philosopher's Stone, Greed had expected the kid to let it all go, terrified and shaken. He remembered that it had it been difficult for Fullmetal to even force himself to use a Stone back in Gluttony's belly, and making one was infinitely more gruesome.

Ling didn't have it in him. That much was plain.

But Ling also didn't give up, apparently.

"What about your military?" He had asked Greed a couple days later, once again managing to ambush him unnoticed. "They are under your brother's control, and Ed said that they've tried to make Philosopher's Stones more than once."

"I guess they might have made a few tiny ones over the years," he had shrugged, "What? You thinking of stealing one?"

"I won't sacrifice innocent people," Ling had been adamant. "But I could take a Stone that someone else made. There's no way to release the souls inside and restore their life, right?"

"Nope," Greed had grinned, "Way to find a loophole, kid. You don't seem to like it, though."

"It's the truth, Greed, I don't have to like it," Ling hadn't sound pleased. "If I have no way to help those souls, I'd rather use them to save my clan than leave your brother to fuel his atrocities with them."

"Careful," Greed had smirked at Ling, "Tell me more about shitting on Wrath's plans, and you might get me roped into this little scheme of yours."

The prince had just smiled at that.

And so, over the course of a few more random meetings, Greed had actually found himself roped in.

He had no reason to help Ling.

He had no reason to deter him either. At this point family loyalty meant very little to Greed.

Hell, if they played their cards right, maybe nobody would even notice.

There were a few kinks that wanted ironing out, however.

The biggest one being – where to even find a Stone in the first place? It wasn't like Wrath would just put them in a drawer in his office. Luckily, since Pride had ordered Greed to keep an eye on the lair, he could explore to his heart's content. Eventually he decided that his best bet was the Third Laboratory, the same one where Lust had died. It was connected to the lair, it was close to Wrath's home and it had definitely been used to make Stones before.

The other problem had taken care of itself when Pride and Gluttony left Central.

And now they were ready to move.

When he entered the penthouse, he found Bido studying the plans of Wrath's residence that Greed had procured a day before. The chimera seemed glad to have something to do.

"How's it goin', gecko man?" Greed put on a confident smile as he moved closer to the table to take a look. Fake it till you make it, yeah? Just like there was no need to confess the full depths of his motivation to Ling, Greed saw no reason to act differently in front of Bido; he didn't have to know that his boss felt like he was in constant freefall ever since Envy left. "Found anything interesting?"

"Yes, Mister Greed," Bido pointed at a part of the plans with one bony finger. "I can get in from there, then move through the servant quarters, then up this staircase, and..."

"Great, great," Greed interrupted him amicably. "Just remember, don't get in trouble, don't take anything and don't hurt anyone."

"Yes, Mister Greed, I know," the chimera nodded, his lizard's tail waving lazily behind him. "But... What's the point, then?"

"The _point_ ," Greed paused as he stalked towards the minibar and bent over to inspect its contents, "is to make a ruckus. I want to make sure that Wrath's attention is not focused on the lair. Alls you have to do is raise enough of an alarm and then get out. His wife will be frightened, and most likely she'll call him home or something, and he'll spend the rest of the night comforting her."

"Right," Bido looked down at the plans again, his big eyes moving over the lines, "But why?"

"That, my old friend, is a dangerous question that's best left to me. You just do your part and whatever you do, _do not_ get caught."

The rest of the day slowly faded away.

Greed felt antsy, looking at the clock again and again, and that made him even more impatient.

He was staring at the darkened sky when he heard the knock. There was someone at the door the penthouse. He frowned, knowing full well that it was too early for Ling to be here. And he had told him to meet him _outside_ the hotel.

Curious.

"See who it is," he told Bido.

It was probably someone from the staff. Maybe Sandra. Greed hadn't even looked at her since Envy went away. He hoped that she wouldn't try to start something. But if she did, well, there were plenty more people who would make decent managers, he supposed.

Shuffling his feet, Bido did as he was told and went to opened the door. Greed heard him gasp, followed by a different noise, sharp and fleshy.

He whirled around and felt his blood freeze in his veins.

Wrath was standing at the doorway, his eye staring straight at Greed.

The thin blade of his sword had skewered Bido all the way through, sticking out of the chimera's back. Greed could see the blood soaking his coat like a dark, wet bloom.

Bido let out a pained gurgle as Wrath shoved him away and stepped over his body as he fell.

"Good evening, Greed," the Führer said, his face expressionless, before he looked down at Bido. "Ah. It seems I missed one of your chimeras back in Dublith," he shrugged lightly. "Not that it matters."

A sudden flash of anger took Greed and he let out a howl of utter fury.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" He roared and rushed at Wrath.

His brother smiled very lightly beneath his black mustache and moved towards Greed.

The two clashed before the Ultimate Shield could cover Greed's whole body. Greed made a furious swipe at Wrath with an armored hand, but the Führer was just as quick as he remembered him from Dublith.

He sidestepped the sloppy attack and answered with a slash of his bloodied sword. Greed hissed when he felt the blade cutting the skin of his chest, but his ability to think clearly had all but evaporated. All he saw was red. His brain was on fire with one very simple, overwhelming desire.

 _Kill, kill, kill him! Kill him, kill him, kill the bastard, KILL HIM NOW, KILL HIM!_

"Didn't you learn anything from the last time?" Wrath asked calmly as he ducked a powerful blow and used his sword to stab Greed's thigh.

Greed roared, pain and rage mixing and bleeding into one another inside his mind.

Wrath let go of the sword, leaving it inside Greed's leg and swiftly drew a second one from his spare scabbard, slashing at Greed's head.

Without thinking it through consciously, Greed's hand shot out and gripped the blade. The clash between steel and the Ultimate Shield drew sparks. With a furious cry, Greed used his other hand to try and pierce Wrath right in the belly.

By God, he was going to make this one-eyed son of a bitch eat his own guts.

But Wrath was quick, much quicker than his aged face suggested. He might have been a mortal Homunculus, but he was still a Homunculus. He swung his body away so Greed's claws only grazed his side, let the second sword go and reached with his left hand to pull the _first_ one out of his brother's thigh.

Greed cried out, the red lightning of his Stone shooting up and sizzling around his wound, but he didn't let that slow him down.

He had learned _something_ in Dublith.

Trying to take on Wrath in hand to hand combat while his brother used swords was an exercise in futility and pain.

Inadvertently, though, Wrath had given him a weapon.

Greed fixed his grip on the sword's handle and he jumped at Wrath. The two blades clanged loudly and locked together. For a moment the two Homunculi stood still, each trying to overpower the other. Greed's face was twisted and enraged, his shark fangs bared in a hateful snarl. Wrath looked as composed as he did when he worked at his office and pretended to be the leader of Amestris.

"Why?" Greed growled.

"Do you really need to ask?" Wrath rose an eyebrow at him. "It's a pity that I only got your chimera. I had hoped to take care of that Xingese boy too."

Greed roared and pushed his brother away, pummeling at him with messy but powerful blows. He wasn't a swordsman, though, and it showed. For all the anger of Greed's assault, Wrath was able to deflect and dodge every slash and stab Greed sent at him.

Even the furniture around the penthouse became a part of the fight, terrain to be climbed to gain a brief high ground or to be used as cover.

A well-aimed kick managed to slip past Wrath's defense and he staggered backwards, towards the balcony.

Greed's fury had simmered down, just enough to allow him to notice his surroundings. He pressed forth, forcing his brother to retreat until his back was pressed against the glass doors.

He slashed at Wrath who dove sideways and used his free hand to push the doors open and step out on the balcony.

Exactly what Greed wanted. The less space Wrath had, the better.

Wrath made a savage swing at Greed's throat. He parried – barely – and shoved the Führer's arm away. Greed's claws shot forward, raking bloody gashes at Wrath's face.

Taking advantage of the closer quarters, Greed rushed into his youngest brother's space and reached to grab his throat.

It didn't work.

Wrath merely turned his torso sideways so Greed's arm flew uselessly by his neck and then his sword flashed from the left. Greed tried to raise the Ultimate Shield up, but he wasn't fast enough. The blade pierced Greed's neck.

His own blood choked him as his fingers twitched, dropping his weapon. Greed lurched forward, eyes blurred from the pain. When Wrath used the moment and stabbed him through the chest, he opened his mouth to cry out in agony, spewing blood everywhere as his Stone desperately tried to repair the wounds.

Greed's knees wobbled and he crashed against the railing. When he looked down, he saw multiple military vehicles parked below "Crown" and the soldiers scuttling around them.

Dammit!

He felt Wrath's hand grabbing at the back of his head. "You're an idiot, Greed," he said simply before he pushed him off the balcony.

* * *

He woke up before Father's throne, coughing and hacking as his Stone brought him back to life.

"Greed," the old man said, his voice even and civil as if the two of them had last seen each other at dinner. "My treacherous son. What do you have to say for yourself this time?"

Greed groaned and slowly pushed himself up off the ground.

"Whatever do you mean?" he asked lightly, disrespectfully.

Did the wrinkled bastard expected him to beg? He was going to be sorely disappointed.

"You planned to steal a Philosopher's Stone and give it to some human troublemaker," Father lightly tilted his head, stroking his beard and studiying Greed under his cold gaze. "After I welcomed you back when I could have... ended you. Is that how you repay your father's mercy?"

"How did you even know? Pride is not here to play spy for you."

"Did you really think that Pride is my only means to keep myself informed?" The old man sounded bored. "Nothing happens here without my leave. You should have known better. Not only are you willing to betray me again, but you did it sloppily and carelessly," Father leaned back in his throne. "Why?"

Suddenly, Greed felt exhausted. It was funny, it should have happened much more dramatically, but he realized that he was done.

Finished.

Even a century ago, when he left, he had told himself that it was temporary. That one day he was going to return to Central, depose his dear old dad and claim his rightful place.

The prospect felt as empty and meaningless as everything else he had ever taken.

What good was that now, when he no longer had anybody to share it with?

How ironic, to finally comprehend that all he ever wanted was utterly impossible. A fucking paradox. To be the embodiment of avarice, and have the fire that had fed his bottomless greed since he was created be consumed by the desire to have people at his side. Friends. Family. A lover.

In truth, everyone he had called a friend had been just a pawn, a servant.

His family had been nothing but accomplices and rivals. To call them siblings was to spit upon the very concept.

And his lover... Envy had wanted nothing more than to be the only one for Greed, and he had spurned and humiliated, and hurt them so many times that he had long ago lost count. Without malice, but also without remorse and without a second thought. And now they were gone.

He let out a soft, forlorn chuckle.

"Why?" He repeated. "Why not? It's not like I have a reason to obey you anymore."

"So this is about Envy?" Father sounded perplexed, if that was even possible. "Your plaything is gone, and now you lash out? Are you truly so childish?"

Greed's whole chest constricted.

Here it was.

The final nail in the coffin.

"That's it," Greed reeled slightly and wiped the dried blood from his chin, "You're _done_ , old man!"

He lunged towards Father's throne, his Ultimate Shield kicking in. He flexed his armored claws as he ran, more than ready to put an end to it all.

He never even saw the gargantuan fist that suddenly closed around his head and drove him face-first into the ground. The impact and the abrupt loss of momentum drove the breath out of Greed's chest.

The huge hand _squeezed_ and he could feel his bones underneath the Ultimate Shield straining. He tried to scream but the force that was pressing his head to the granite floor was so great that he couldn't even open his mouth.

"What a bother," grumbled a deep, listless voice that Greed hadn't heard in more than a century.

 _Shit_.

Sloth could move faster than the eye could see whenever he felt like making the fucking effort. Greed had forgotten all about him. His presence here must have meant that the nationwide circle was finally complete. Father was yet another step closer to the Promised Day.

And Greed was, apparently, yet another step closer to death.

He heard footsteps and saw the tips of Wrath's black shoes as his youngest brother moved to stand in front of him.

"Foolish," Wrath observed. "Though not unexpected, I suppose," Greed's ears were ringing and he could feel the inside of his skull pulsing painfully. Wrath's disinterested voice sounded strangely faint. Greed tried to push himself up, desperately mustering all the strength of his arms and chest. Sloth just grunted in annoyance and applied more pressure on his head, literally driving it into the ground. Greed felt the stony surface crack underneath his face in unison with the bones shattering beneath the carbon cover of his Shield.

His lungs were burning and his neck felt like it was about to snap. A part of him wanted to shut off, to get into the merciful embrace of oblivion.

As his vision blackened, he wondered if he was going to see Envy when he died.

Would be sweet, even if it lasted only for the few seconds his Stone needed to revive him so his brothers could kill him all over again. And again, and again, until it ran out of energy.

Greed lost conscience just a couple of seconds before the explosion shook the throne room and the bag full of smoke grenades hit the floor. He never heard Ling's frantic voice calling his name.

* * *

 _In any universe, in any form, in any body, Greed is destined to stand on the opposite side of his evil family when the time comes. I believe that wholeheartedly._

 _Also, writing fights is a bitch._

 _Until next time!_


	14. Chapter 14

Greed opened his eyes with a start, loudly gasping for air and trying to sit up.

This wasn't the lair. Rays of moonlight were shining silvery through an open window. He could hear the wind brushing against leaves and branches, while crickets and birds, and all sorts of damned critters were making noise in the forests outside. When he moved, the wooden floor beneath him squeaked and Greed winced involuntarily.

Where the hell was he?

"I thought you'd be awake sooner or later," a gruff voice that carried the same foreign accent as Ling's spoke up and Greed turned to its source.

It turned out to be a short man dressed in loose black clothes that didn't look Amestrian at all. If Greed was to judge, this guy was sort of old, his hair and mustache turned grey, but his black eyes were still fierce and bright. A fighter, Greed decided.

Not that this was any answer.

What had happened? The last thing he remembered was him getting his head slowly crushed in by Sloth as Father watched from his underground throne. There had to be an explanation about getting from there to here, and Greed wanted to hear it.

"Where are we?" he asked, just to see exactly _how_ sincere and forthcoming this new guy was gonna be.

"The young lord brought us here," the old man measured Greed with his slanted, piercing eyes. "He claims it's safe."

"The young lord, huh?"

"Greed!" Ling's voice rang behind him and he turned to look at the princeling as he rushed into the room.

He was accompanied by another human, a girl dressed somewhat similarly to the old man. She eyed Greed with open suspicion.

Then it finally dawned on him.

"So those two are your friends, huh? Lan Fan and Fu, right?" Greed shook his head. "What happened, kid?"

"I saw the military carry your body away when I neared the hotel," Ling shrugged, "My retainers had already found me... and yes, I _told_ you so," he smirked briefly at Greed who just narrowed his purple eyes in response, "It took some time to track down your signature. That lair of yours is quite the maze. Once we got in and reached the big hall, we saw your brothers torturing you. Luckily," Ling grinned, "they weren't expecting us at all. A bag full of smoke grenades was enough to disorient them for a few seconds so we can get to you and get out. Well," he tilted his head sideways and gave Greed a sly look, "the fact that we could sense them from afar also helped to keep away once we were above ground."

Greed just listened. He wasn't about to admit it, but he was a little impressed. Finally, as Ling finished, he threw his head back and laughed, "Well done, kid! Kind of foolish," he winked at Ling, "but I ain't about to complain."

"So, remind me again, what did you say before? About future Emperors being in your debt? It seems that the tables have turned a little, yes?"

Greed laughed again and clapped the smiling Ling on the shoulder. "Don't worry, kid," he gave him a predatory grin, "I'm sure you'll rack up a score the moment we get close to a restaurant. You still owe me a few dinners."

Ling merely chuckled but the girl next to him, Lan Fan, bristled with indignation at the Homunculus' words.

"Show Master Ling more respect, monster!" She growled at him, her young face scowling up at Greed.

It was almost... cute.

But it was better to set her straight from the start.

"I _am_ showing him respect, darlin'," Greed looked down at her, hamming up the patronizing voice. "I rarely make the effort to treat humans like you as if they're my buddies. You have to be exceptional to catch my eye. If Greed likes ya, kid," he grinned, his shark-like fangs shining in the dark, "you got it made. Think on that for a little while," he added as he walked past her and Ling and stepped outside.

He was determined to see where had the Xingese brought him.

The irony nearly made him laugh out loud.

They were at the cabin, the same half-destroyed one where Gluttony had swallowed them. And there, parked in the meadow next to the house...

"What have you done to my car?!" Greed's jaw dropped in dismay.

"Oh, that?" Ling stepped beside him. "Fu and Lan Fan used it to get to Xing and back after she lost her arm," the kid apparently noticed Greed's confused look – the girl back in the cabin had all her limbs, after all – because he added, "She was fitted with automail back home and they returned here to help me."

"Did they drive through a desert or something?" Greed walked towards his car and looked in horror at the ruined paintjob and the grimy wheels.

"Yes, actually," Ling whistled behind him, completely oblivious. Then his voice turned louder and happier, "Oh! Hello, Ed! When did you get back from the North?"

"Ed? Wha-" Greed frowned and whirled around.

The Fullmetal Alchemist was standing there, accompanied by two burly guys that had the dim-witted look of soldiers.

It was a really annoying habit of his, to sneak up on people like that.

* * *

"Wait, so you've joined up with _him_ now?" Fullmetal sounded amusingly shrilly as he pointed an automail finger in Greed's direction.

"He agreed to help and he's not with the other Homunculi anymore," Ling shrugged.

"And you believe him?!" Elric's voice suggested that, clearly, _he_ didn't.

"I don't have to believe him," the prince answered seriously. "I saw it."

"Not that I don't enjoy listening to you two talk about me as if I'm not in the room," Greed interrupted them, vaguely annoyed, "But can we cut the crap?"

"What do you mean?" Edward Elric squinted suspiciously at him.

Greed smirked, "I already know what Ling wants," he said and leaned back against the wooden wall, "But what about you, _Fullmetal?_ " He didn't bother to hide the mocking edge of his voice. The more irritated Elric got, the more hotheaded he became, and that was exactly what Greed wanted. He only had to be careful not to overdo it and send the boy into the other extreme – that disgusting stubborn streak of his. He had to maintain a fine balance here, "Back in Dublith, I thought that you and your brother wanted to get your bodies back. But it's not just that, is it? At least, not anymore," he chuckled, "If I were to guess, I'd say that your hero complex has kicked in already and you have gotten it in your head that you must save this country from my dad. Am I right, huh?"

Edward took a deep breath. "And what if you are?" He answered Greed's question with a question of his own.

Greed _tsk_ ed with his tongue and casually said, "I can help you with that." He saw the boy's amber-colored eyes widen and he laughed, "It doesn't come for free, though."

"What the hell do you want?" Edward snarled at him.

"From you? Only a few things," Greed lifted up two fingers, "First, _I_ get to be in charge. I won't work for either of you, kids, but feel free to join _my_ team. If not, me and all the information in my head will just take a stroll out into the woods and vanish. But believe me, you better decide now because you won't have much time to chase me around and tell me you've reconsidered if you want to save Amestris."

"Are you serious?!" Edward sounded outraged. " _This_ is what a two centuries old creature demands? This is about saving millions of lives, it's not about who's in charge!"

"I'm _Greed_ , kid. Who's in charge is _everything_ to me," Greed said softly. "I won't make the same mistake for a third time and let someone else boss me around."

"You know what?! _Fine!_ " Fullmetal scowled. "What's the second condition?"

Greed's mouth suddenly felt dry and he gulped. "I," he began slowly, "am going to ask you a question. You will tell me the truth. I will know if you lie. _If_ you do," Greed held his gaze in his own, "the deal is off and you, and your whole country, can fuck off to Hell for all I care. Agreed?"

Edward just narrowed his eyes. "Ask," he simply said.

Odd, now that he had the answers within his reach, Greed felt weak.

But he had to continue.

He had to know.

"Soon after you and your brother went to Briggs, Envy was sent to the North too," Greed said, staring at the old gas lamp that bathed the ruined innards of the cabin in a murky, yellow glow. "They had orders to kill Scar and capture Dr. Marcoh. Pride thought that you and Alphonse were a part of the mess there. So, what I'm going to ask you is this: How did Envy die and who killed them?"

"You never mentioned anything about Envy to me," Ling observed.

"Yeah, well, it wasn't any of your business, was it?" Greed shot back at him without turning.

His eyes shifted and locked in with Edward's. Greed studied his face, noticing the emotions that chased across it. Shock. Confusion. Relief. Determination.

"I don't know," he finally said. "I didn't even know that Envy was there. We _did_ fight one of your siblings at the fort, but it was Sloth, I think. And we didn't kill him."

"I don't care about Sloth," Greed said hastily and sighed, "Fine. Alright. You didn't lie," then he suddenly remembered and his eyes narrowed at Edward. "What about your brother? Or Scar? You said that you were separated from them. Could they have done it?"

"I don't know," Edward repeated and frowned. "I haven't seen any of them in weeks. I actually hoped I'd find Al here instead of you, Greed. _If_ Envy attacked them, they probably tried to protect themselves," he added, a little more fire in his voice.

Greed remained silent for a while, staring at Edward with an impassive face.

"Alright," he eventually said and clasped his hands. "I will ask your brother the same question if we ever see him again, and then we'll see what happens, but for now you, kids, are in. Let's get this show on the road."

* * *

"So this is your hometown, huh?" Greed looked around. Dawn was still a few hours away and the little village was asleep. "Quaint. I suppose?"

Resembool was... well, it was pretty much a whole lot of nothing. Greed wasn't even sure that he could find it on a map. Nobody cared about a bunch of shepherds and their tiny town.

Which made it a decent hiding place, if nor for the fact that Wrath probably knew perfectly well about the birthplace of his Fullmetal Alchemist... but then again, he wasn't aware that Ed was back from the North, so Greed supposed that it all evened out somehow.

The home of the Rockbells was a two-story house that seemed nicer than some of the hovels they had passed by on their way. As far as Greed was able to understand from Ed's stingy explanations, this family had taken in the Elrics after their mother's death, and they had been the ones to fit him with his automail limbs after the human transmutation that got them in this whole mess in the first place.

So, he was close to these people.

Good to know.

A dog started barking from inside the house when their group approached the porch. Animals didn't react well to the presence of the Homunculi.

Then again, it could have been the soldiers.

Darius and Heinkel, the two men who shadowed Ed, were actually chimeras. An ape and a lion.

Whenever Greed looked at them, he remembered Bido, his chest impaled on his brother's sword and breathing his last.

Heinkel sniffed the air. "Two people," he claimed, "And the dog, obviously. Should be clear."

"Okay," Greed shrugged, "Go ahead," he nodded to Elric.

Fullmetal raised a hand to knock, but then the door opened to reveal a diminutive old woman.

"Ed?" She smiled, then her weary eyes looked at the rest of them. "And a lot of friends of yours, I see. Come in," she opened the door wide and stepped aside.

Greed had to admit that their group was quite the sight. The Xingese princeling and his two bodyguards, then Darius and Heinkel... and, of course, Greed himself.

If they were to lay low in Resembool until it was time to stop the Promised Day, they would _absolutely_ have to stay in-doors, he decided.

"Winry came home just last night," the old woman said to Ed as he took off his traveler's coat.

"She's alright?" Fullmetal's voice sounded softer than it usually did.

Greed made a mental note to learn more about these people.

"You know her," the grandma grinned. "Never lets danger stop her. Like some other kids I know..."

"Ed? _ED!_ " A young woman's voice rang from the staircase and Greed saw a slender, blonde-haired girl rushing out to give Fullmetal an affectionate hug. "Thank God you're okay! We were so worried!"

The dumb kid looked embarrassed as he disentangled himself from the girl (that had to be Winry, right?) and cleared his throat.

She apparently knew Ling and his buddies, as well as two other soldiers that Heinkel and Darius seemed to know, and she greeted them all heartily.

Then she stopped in front of Greed and for a moment appeared a little startled.

"This is Greed," Fullmetal said gruffly. "He used to be one of the bad guys but he seems to have had a change of heart."

She looked at him, flanked by the large bodies of Darius and Heinkel. Greed smirked down at her, noticing the odd look in her blue eyes.

"See anything interesting, little girl?" he chuckled.

"Your name is... Greed?" she asked softly.

"Yeah, that's what the kid said," Greed shrugged and raised an eyebrow. He kind of hoped this girl wasn't slow in the head. Would make camping out here with these clowns even harder than it was.

"Yeah, no, sorry, it's just..." Winry hesitated, "Do you happen to know a person named Envy?"

Greed suddenly felt like his whole being had been doused in icy water. Without even thinking clearly, he rushed forward and grabbed her by the shoulders.

" _What did you just say?!_ " He all but shouted, "How do you know Envy? When did you see them? Are they still alive?" His hands clenched but he didn't notice, nor did he really hear the pained gasp that escaped Winry's lips. "Is Envy hurt? Where are they? _Tell me, dammit!_ "

"Stop it, you're hurting me!" Winry winced and tried to move away from him, but Greed was literally incapable of listening. Everything she said that wasn't about Envy was less than background noise to him. He could feel the Stone inside him pulsing madly, almost like a heart, and for the first time in weeks... months... he felt a shred of hope.

It took an automail fist smashing into his jaw to bring him back to the world of rational thinking.

Somehow he had ended up sitting on the wooden floor, his face throbbing painfully. He rubbed his sore jaw with the back of his hand and he glanced up at Fullmetal. The alchemist was standing in front of Winry, his posture protective and his mouth a hard line. He seemed pissed off.

Huh.

So that's how it was?

"Sorry," Greed mumbled, looking up at Ed. "Really," he raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Didn't mean to go crazy on your girl. It's just... I thought Envy was dead," he finished, his voice quiet and hoarse. He looked past Ed's shoulders, staring at Winry's eyes. "Look," he sighed. "I didn't mean to scare you. I don't... I try not to hurt girls whenever I can. Ask your alchemist here if you don't believe me. I allowed his teacher to kick my ass once and didn't lift a finger just cause she's a woman," he ignored Fullmetal's snort, "Just... tell me about Envy," Greed swallowed heavily, "Please."

* * *

 _Up until now, as you, dear readers may have noticed, I have rotated the POV chapters between Greed and Envy. This one is a little different. It's a second Greed chapter in a row, but this was the only proper way to go about it. This fic still follows a basic, already-set-up-by-the-show timeline (and when it doesn't, chalk it up to the AU or to me being a buffoon, whichever works best), and the Envy chapter that is due next time I update couldn't really be done chronologically before this one._

 _Speaking of chronology and inconsistencies, Winry got to Resembool before Ed instead of vice-versa. It was merely for my convenience, as her personal moments with Ed are kind of wasted in a Homunculi-POV story so there was no point in keeping the (otherwise awesome and very cute) scene where she finds him in her room eating a sandwich :D_

 _Peace!_


	15. Chapter 15

There was something about the desert. A vast expanse of nothing but sand, rocks and sky, empty, barren and inhospitable, a place where humans were not welcome and yet they thrived. A place that was sweltering during the day, the sun beating down mercilessly on the arid earth, and during the night it became so cold that your breath would mist around your face as countless constellations blinked upon the inky sky above.

A single, ill-prepared man could perish in a hilarious variety of different and unpleasant ways here but, somehow, as a group they managed to not only survive but to build and stand tall.

The Ishvalan people confused Envy. Humans were not supposed to be particularly multi-faceted. But this breed was as contradictory as the desert they lived in. They were harsh and proud, and yet also valued their kin and helped each other more so than the other Amestrians did. A shiver ran up their spine, and they could almost feel the hatred and the resentment bubbling in their stomach.

Envy couldn't wait until the Ishvalans were all dead.

They shifted their legs, sitting up against the boulder they were leaning on. Envy gazed at the sunset, that brief, golden moment that marked the shift between the heat of the day and the chill of the night.

"Penny for your thoughts?" their companion said and they turned to look at the State Alchemist.

Zolf J. Kimblee was still in his early twenties, and yet he already held the rank of a Major and had graduated with full honors from the Academy. Envy found the psychological evaluations of his character to be extremely amusing.

The military had judged Kimblee to be diligent, assiduous and reliable. They thought that he responded well to stressful situations and was generally both level-headed _and_ brave, depending on what the situation demanded. In other words, the perfect State Alchemist for the battlefield.

And they had completely missed the fact that Kimblee was a stone cold psychopath.

Although, to his credit, he _was_ decent at presenting a front of sanity when it suited him.

Like right now. He was sitting across from Envy, one leg bent up lazily and the other stretched so that his boot almost touched Envy's bare feet. His shoulders were relaxed and with the orange glow of the sunset outlining his sharp cheekbones and his slender nose, he almost looked handsome.

Until you gazed into those teal eyes and saw the madness.

Envy was good at understanding people. Well, not so much the contents of their character, that still eluded them on occasion, even after innumerable years of watching and pretending, but they could read the eyes and the body language like nobody else could. To them, Zolf looked like someone who had loved to tear the wings off of flies or to flip turtles on their backs as a child, and never really grew out of it as he became an adult. And people made for much more fascinating playthings than mere critters.

That was what made him such a perfect weapon, after all. The State Alchemists wielded incredible power, and were generally a haughty and self-absorbed lot, but most of them were not going to make it out of Ishval unscarred. Carving a Crest of Blood took a special kind of mind among the humans and Kimblee was just the right tool for that job.

Dr. Marcoh was working on making a new Philosopher's Stone by using Ishvalan prisoners, and Envy had decided that Zolf should be the one to receive it once it was complete. The other State Alchemists in Ishval, ones like Basque Gran, Roy Mustang, Isaac McDougal, Armstrong... it would be wasted on them. Though fearsome in their own right, they all lacked the grit Father's masterplan needed.

But _Kimblee_ armed with a Philosopher's Stone? Yeah, if that didn't carve the Crest, nothing else would.

Envy smirked at the so-called Crimson Alchemist, already congratulating themselves for the inevitable success they were going to achieve here. "I was just thinking," they looked him over, "that if you pull this off tonight... well, let's just say that there will be good things coming your way," a small cackle escaped their lips. Hook, line and sinker, right?

Zolf raised a thin eyebrow, giving them a cool glance. "Is that so?" he asked. Odd, he didn't look... especially enthralled by the prospect. "Another piece of the puzzle of your designs that is to be revealed?" He shrugged. "It seems that every time you give me an answer, there are two more questions lurking behind the next corner."

"We got to keep you hungry, Crimson," Envy grinned evilly at him, but their heart wasn't in it.

Envy liked Zolf. They really did.

He was the only human they had ever worked with voluntarily. The utter lack of morals and his inability to distinguish between absurd human constructs like good and evil really set him apart from the rest of his kind. His cold ruthlessness contrasted beautifully with the wild exhilaration he displayed whenever he was allowed to unleash his powers and that made him a perfect partner in crime.

But it wasn't the same.

It wasn't enough.

There was an emptiness in them, a century old and surrounded by so much shame that they couldn't even force themselves to confront it. And Kimblee couldn't do anything to fill that void. Nor would he have cared to, if he knew about it.

Kimblee wasn't _him_. He never could be.

Funny. It seemed that Envy was a creature of contradictions too, like the desert and the Ishvalans. They hated Greed. They were glad that he was gone. They didn't need him. They hoped he was dead, unlikely as it was.

And yet, sometimes, Envy caught themselves wishing nothing more than to fall into his arms again, to smell his scent and to hear his voice.

It was intense and it made their chest ache. It was disgraceful and humiliating, and they knew that he wasn't worth it, and that he never cared about them in the first place.

Thankfully, moments like these were as brief as the sunsets, and Envy was able to spend most of their time basking in the comfort of their heated anger towards humanity or the coldness of their father's plans.

"I suppose it make sense," Zolf turned his eyes back towards the ravine and the winding path below as the last rays of the setting sun flared before it sunk under the endless horizon. "My lust for Ishvalan blood is only rivaled by my curiosity, after all. And I _do_ want to see how far the rabbit hole goes," he squinted at the distance and he bit his lip. "Hrmm. Headlights approaching. See?"

Envy looked at the direction he pointed at.

The convoy of the Ishvalan freedom fighters was closing in on the ravine that lay below the two of them. Which meant that soon Zolf was going to get to play the part of the hero, single-handedly destroying a nest of wasps that had been a thorn at the military's side for months. After this night, his candidacy to receive the Stone would be cemented, and they would all be one step closer to finishing the Ishvalan Crest.

A part of Envy wished that they didn't have to go through such ridiculous hoops – wouldn't it be easier to just hand the Stone to Zolf, point him at the largest remaining bulk of Ishvalan lives and simply drop his leash?

Poof! One Crest of Blood, fresh out of the desert and ready to go! All courtesy of your faithful Envy, Father, no need to get up from your throne to give me a hug or anything.

But _no_ , Wrath insisted that such acts required finesse. A scalpel, he said, sometimes is more useful than a broadsword. Father's plans had to be fulfilled smartly and subtly, or else the humans might eventually become an obstacle instead of a resource. Frustrating as it was, Envy couldn't pretend that they didn't see the sense in it.

They sighed and got up.

"Where are you going?" Kimblee asked, gazing at the approaching Ishvalan vehicles below. His tone suggested it was more out of manners than out of interest.

* * *

"Where are you going?" Van Hohenheim looked up from the fire as Envy rose and stretched their arms up. He sounded vaguely concerned.

They nearly groaned. Ever since the two of them arrived at the Kanama slums to wait for Alphonse, Hohenheim had treated them as if they were a bomb that could explode at any given time. He did it by pretending to be engaging in small talk, again and again, as if Envy was incapable of noticing what he was doing.

In a way, his behavior reminded them of how Greed had treated them before. The facade of caring. Just like how Greed had always known what a disgusting monstrosity Envy truly was, so was Van Hohenheim aware that he was dealing with a Homunculus that had spent nearly two centuries ravaging this country and killing its people.

Envy had been willing to indulge Greed's veneer because it had been so tantalizingly close to the real lover's affection they wanted and were never going to get. Ultimately, by the time they allied with the Elrics and the whole band of idiots, they had come to consider the whole thing a mistake that had brought them nothing but heartache but it was done and over with. And they didn't intend to repeat that mistake again.

They had no cause to do the same with Hohenheim. He had nothing to offer them that they wanted. Nothing at all.

So they looked down at the man whose face Father wore and curled their lips in a defiant snarl. "I'm not about to kill anyone, don't fear," they said, their voice purposefully affronted. "I am capable of controlling myself, you know."

Hohenheim took his glasses off and used the hem of his shirt to start polishing them. "Why so jumpy?" he asked, the very image of agreeable good intentions. "All I meant was that it would be good to know where are you in case Al returns while you're gone."

"Screw this," Envy shook their head and walked off.

The night sky was overcast and the darkness felt comforting to Envy as they left the dimly-lit village and headed towards the thick woods that surrounded it. A little solitude never hurt, and if Envy had to be frank, ever since they... switched sides, they had been surrounded by humans and it was suffocating. Now that Yoki and the chimeras had remained in Liore and Alphonse had went to Resembool to be sure that Winry got home safely, all Envy needed to do was ditch Van Hohenheim for a few hours and just take a few moments to breathe without the noisy, nosy humans around.

Not to mention that they needed to think.

They may have joined forces with Alphonse and his father, but they did not share the same goals as them. The Elrics were welcome to fight Father to their hearts' content, and Envy wasn't going to shed tears for the Dwarf in the Flask if they happened to destroy it and halt the Promised Day.

The problem was what to do with their siblings. Some of them were going to fight on Father's side and Envy still hadn't found a solution to that.

Greed was going to be the easiest to convince. He probably wouldn't even wait for Envy to finish talking before agreeing to abandon Father. It's not like he was particularly faithful to the cause anyway. The only difficulties with Greed were of personal nature, and that could wait until the bigger crisis was dealt with.

Gluttony was going to require more work. He was, by nature, obedient and fearful of all his siblings. Before, this had made Envy despise him, but lately they just felt sorry for him. He was just so... lost without Lust. A small, treasonous voice in the back of their head wheedled how he wasn't worth saving and how even if _all else_ succeeded, even if Father was defeated and the Homunculi survived, Gluttony would just be a burden for the rest of them thanks to his endless hunger and his stupidity. Envy angrily shut that voice up. They weren't going to give up just because it wasn't going to be easy. Humans could persevere, even when it was difficult, yes? Well, if _they_ could, so could Envy! Yes, Gluttony himself was of little value, but they owed it to Lust. Envy wondered if taking her appearance on would help convince Gluttony. They supposed it was a matter of seeing which was stronger – his love for Lust or his fear of Father. Envy wasn't sure about the answer, but so far they hadn't come up a better idea.

The other three were what they didn't know what to do with. As Envy walked further towards the forest, away from Kanama, they almost began talking to themselves, feeling frustrated and unsure.

Wrath was going to be a challenge. He loved having power over Amestris and there was no scenario in which he would get to keep it if Father ever fell. And he was a subject of his vice just as much as the rest of the family was to theirs. Turning tail and refusing to fight his enemies? Yeah, not the style of the personification of anger.

Envy's mind was working furiously, gears turning as they combed through their memories until they found something that might be of use.

Wrath had said once that his wife was the only thing he ever chose. Everything else in his life had been just a tool for Father, but her he chose on his own. Envy knew that he had been allowed to have that largely because she was of no consequence whatsoever, but that didn't make it any less valid. They wondered if Wrath's hollow heart was capable of affection at all... but if it was, and that was a gamble by itself, if it was... perhaps they could try to reason with him. After all, if Father succeeded, she would perish as well. Would Wrath continue to serve the creature who was going to kill his wife? Envy wished they had an answer.

Sloth was probably hopeless. Loyalty meant nothing to him, and Envy knew for a fact that he didn't give a fuck about any of his siblings, and probably not a whole lot more about Father either. And that was a pity. If nothing else, Envy thought that it would be better to have the fastest and strongest Homunculus on _their_ side when the time to stand against Father came. The trouble was that rebellion required effort, and Sloth had _never_ made _any_ effort about _anything_ unless forced to. And the only ones who had _ever_ been able to force Sloth into action were Father and Pride.

Pride... Fuck, Envy couldn't even _begin_ to think what to do about Pride...

Suddenly, something on the edge of their vision flashed, as if a stray beam of moonlight had managed to worm its way through the thick, grey clouds and was reflected on a metal surface, and they turned their head.

Huh.

That was odd.

What was the Tin Can doing in the woods?

And why was he standing so still, staring at them?

"Hey, Alphonse," Envy folded their arms and measured him with their eyes, "You managed to get Winry home safely?" No response. That wasn't... typical. The younger Elric _loved_ babbling, to the point where it had long become tiresome, "Your dad is waiting for you," they nodded towards the distant lights of Kanama. The helmet moved to follow the gesture. "Lovely talking with you," Envy sneered and made to turn away and head deeper into the forest.

If the Tin Can wanted to be weird and creepy, it was none of Envy's business and they _really_ didn't care enough to actually put up with it. Let Van Hohenheim sort out his own brat, eh?

And then the night around Envy opened a thousand glowing, malicious eyes and a soft, disembodied voice purred, _Hello, Envy._

* * *

 _Yet another chapter that has slight inconsistencies in regard to the timeline. In the show, Ed and co. get to Kanama shortly before Pride and Gluttony. Here it's the opposite, and it's on purpose. Just roll with it lol_

 _The first part of this chapter is set during the Ishvalan War. A part of me wants to write a whole villain POV spinoff (set in the same AU) about it, this time centered around Envy & Kimblee, but that's probably never going to happen. Although it appears to have little to do with what happens in "present time", it's not irrelevant but that won't become obvious until later._


	16. Chapter 16

Envy cried out when their side hit the tree trunk so hard that the wood splintered.

Shit! Shitshitshitshitshit!

They scrambled to get back on their feet, their head spinning and their instincts screaming in horror.

How? _How_ had Pride found them?

 _I should have known_ you _would turn traitor,_ Pride soft voice echoed in the night and a sharp bolt made of cold shadows shot out of one of the gaps at the joints in Alphonse's possessed armor. It pierced Envy right beneath their shoulder blade and they shrieked in pain and fear. They tried to force themselves free but another shadow bit into their wrist, pinning the shapeshifting Homunculus to the ground. The red light of their Stone immediately began sizzling around the wounds but it was no use, Pride had them completely under his control. _Always so self-centered and egotistical... Greed has rubbed off on you,_ Pride sneered as his disembodied eyes looked on from the slits in the armor suit and the shadowy tendrils that surrounded it.

 _Hey, Gluttony! Come here!_ Pride loudly barked an order and Envy heard the foliage in the forest rustle noisily, as if something heavy was struggling to make its way towards the two of them. Alphonse's suit of armor bent over Envy, the shadows roiling inside inspecting them critically. The movement looked jerky and unnatural, as if the puppeteer animating it was inexperienced and was yet to fully grasp how to do it properly. _Just you wait, you treacherous little freak,_ Pride growled in their face, _I'm gonna carve you up in little pieces and have Gluttony eat you. Let's see how you survive_ that.

"Pride?" Gluttony's voice was coming closer. "What's going on?"

Pride turned all his eyes towards the noise just as Gluttony was emerging from the forest. _Just look who I found camping out with the Elrics and their filthy father_ , he boasted cruelly, dismissing Envy from his immediate attention for a second.

Pride had always placed himself above the rest of them. He was the firstborn. The most powerful one. The eldest one. Father's second-in-command. The rest of the Homunculi were nothing to him. Underestimating them came to Pride as naturally as breathing did for humans.

That had always been unpleasant and demeaning. Not that you should have expected anything less from the personification of hubris.

But this time it did them a favor. If not for the piercing agony, they might have grinned.

Gluttony stepped into the clearing and his small, beady eyes welling up with shock. "Lu..." He stuttered, "L-lust?"

His voice sounded so lost and hopeful that Envy briefly felt guilty for deceiving him like this.

 _What?_ Pride's eyes turned back to Envy... only to discover that they had taken the form of their dead sister. The glowing, malicious orbs widened in sudden realization when Envy met them with Lust's icy, amethyst gaze.

"Lust is back..." Gluttony's voice was quiet, as if he was talking to himself. Then he turned towards Pride. His round face was twisted in confusion and anger. "Why are you hurting Lust, Pride?" He stepped towards the possessed suit of armor, his body language fearful and determined all at once. "Stop hurting her, stop hurting Lust! She's _back!_ "

 _Shut up, you fat moron!_ Pride hissed, _That's n..._

He didn't have time to finish. Envy transformed their free arm into a curved blade and hacked at the shadowy tendrils that kept them pinned to the muddy ground. Envy wasn't strong enough to actually hurt him, of course, but the trick was so unexpected that that Pride involuntarily stumbled back a step and released them for just a fraction of a second. Before he could gather his bearings, Envy was already frantically running towards Kanama with all their power, taking their usual appearance back.

 _GLUTTONY, YOU IDIOT!_ An indignant screech echoed into the night behind them.

It only made Envy run faster.

Damn it! God _-fucking-_ damn it!

This was bad, _really_ bad.

The Promised Day was creeping close and if Pride had his clutches on Alphonse already, it didn't bode well at all. Especially when – to Envy's knowledge – the other human sacrifices were unaccounted for.

They were running out of time. They had to get to Van Hohenheim, to warn him.

When the shadow claw slashed through the tendons beneath their left ankle, Envy shrieked in pain and crashed face-first into the ground. The damage was repaired almost instantaneously, but it was too late.

 _I'm going to make you scream for this, Envy_ , Pride's soft voice promised, closing in from behind. They turned to look back at the woods and saw Alphonse's suit striding purposefully towards their fallen form, Gluttony on his heels, looking chastised and confused.

"No, I don't think you will," another voice answered and Envy suddenly felt like crying in relief.

 _Hohenheim_... Pride sounded taken aback as he stopped in his tracks.

Pride never sounded like that, not even when he spoke to Father. Gluttony just stared at the man, and for the first time in their existence, Envy did not hear him asking whether he was allowed to eat a newcomer.

Van Hohenheim was standing on the other side of the meadow, the lights of Kanama illuminating him from behind and washing against the overcast night sky. Hands tucked into the pockets of his trousers, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, his long blonde hair slightly messy… he didn't look intimidated at all.

But behind his glasses his amber-colored eyes were staring at Pride hard, the look in them so severe that Envy realized that the mellow man they had traveled with was nothing but a mask.

"I thought you would have learned your lesson in Liore, Pride," Van Hohenheim stated and stepped towards the Homunculi. Gluttony whimpered and hesitantly moved to retreat towards the forest.

 _Now, now, Hohenheim,_ Pride had regained his composure and allowed his usual sadism to start dripping once more from his voice. _Don't do anything you'll regret. One slice from my shadows and you can kiss the blood seal inside your son's armor goodbye. So do us all a favor and don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong._

Van Hohenheim didn't deign to respond. He merely lifted an eyebrow and then arcs of crimson lightning shot out of the earth beneath his feet, flying towards Kanama. Before the Homunculi could blink all the lights in the slums flickered out and the night was blacker than it ever was. Startled shouts rang from the distance, the people of Kanama not understanding what was happening.

 _No!_ Envy heard Pride howl in the almost total darkness.

"Yes," Van Hohenheim said. "I figured you out when we met before, Pride. Shadows, hm? You need _light_ , then. Without it you are as powerless as the Dwarf was within his flask."

 _I still have enough to send the soul of your precious Alphonse into oblivion!_ Pride wheezed defiantly. _We can find another candidate!_

"You seem incapable of listening," Van Hohenheim sighed.

A rumble shook the earth as it swiftly traveled back towards the forest. The fading shadows inside the suit of armor suddenly cried out in alarm and simply vanished. With a hard, metallic thud, the empty armor crashed on the ground.

Envy heard trees falling down and turned to look at the woods, shifting a few bits inside their eyes, forcing their vision to go well beyond the human ability to see in darkness. A huge stone fist was jutting down from the earth just where Envy had had the misfortune to run into their oldest brother.

And in the clutches of this fist…

"I _told_ you, Pride," Van Hohenheim walked towards it. "I _know_ you. I _understand_ you. You need a vessel. That's why you couldn't step beyond the boundaries of the circle in Liore. And that's why you had to travel here, on foot, with my son as your hostage."

Envy was staring at the little boy that was frustratedly struggling in the grip of the stone hand the Elrics' father had summoned.

They could almost laugh about it.

Selim fucking Bradley.

Of course. It was so obvious in hindsight that they felt like a idiot for not putting it together before. Just another of the Dwarf's secrets, not to be shared with the rest of the family. They were nothing but tools, and tools shouldn't reach beyond their purpose, after all.

"Gluttony!" Pride shrieked, his voice sounding thinner and not nearly as frightening as it had before. "Gluttony! Where are you? Eat them! Free me!"

Envy looked around.

Huh.

Gluttony had disappeared somewhere, probably desperately hurrying back towards Central and the lair. He seemed to fear Van Hohenheim more than Pride.

"They used me to create the one you call Father," Van Hohenheim told the seething Homunculus trapped inside the massive fist. "Did you really think that I cannot sense where you hid your vessel, Pride?"

"I'm gonna kill you, you human piece of excrement!" Pride shouted, enraged beyond belief.

"Yes, you said something in that spirit about my son, too," the tall blonde man had reached the fist and stood face to face with Pride in the dark. "I can tolerate a lot. But not that." The meaning behind his words was more than clear.

"WAIT!" Envy cried out, finally managing to stand up and hobble towards them. "Don't! We had a deal!"

Hohenheim's bearded jaw twitched in frustration as he turned to look at Envy. "I know, Envy. But we can't let him free. Not when the Promised Day is drawing near."

"D-dad? Envy?" Alphonse Elric's childish voice made them turn towards the place where the suit of armor had fallen. The Tin Can slowly got up, lightly shaking his helmet as he was trying to clear his head up. "What happened? I… I remember seeing Winry off and then…" His voice trailed off as he finally spotted the trapped Pride. " _Oh…_ "

"Al?" Van Hohenheim's voice was immediately softened. "Are you alright?"

"I-I think so…" the boy answered hesitantly. "What are you going to do with him, dad?" He nodded towards Pride.

"I…"

"We had a _deal!_ " Envy growled, punctuating each word as they stepped between Pride and Van Hohenheim. "So far I have fulfilled my end of it. You owe me the same, Hohenheim!" They declared, much more boldly than they felt.

Hohenheim looked down at Envy and held their gaze in his for what seemed like a long time. Then he sighed and stepped back.

"You have until the rest of them get here to try and break him out," he told them. "I hope you know what you're doing, Envy. Come on, Al. We have to go. We're already running out of time."

With that he turned and walked away from Pride and Envy.

As he did, the earth beneath them thundered and shook, and forks of red light danced and flickered all around. Envy's eyes widened as the ground was transmuted and rose, and rose around them, until the two Homunculi were trapped in a stony dome full of such impenetratable darkness that even their enhanced vision struggled to make anything out.

They heard, rather than saw, the fist that held Pride crumbling and the child-husk of his vessel hitting the ground.

"What have you done, you miserable monster?" Pride hissed.

Envy turned to him, despite the blackness and said, "We need to talk."

* * *

 _So... I'm back, I guess?_

 _In the latest installment, which was submitted quite some time ago, I reached the point where I wasn't sure exactly WHERE I wanted to go and what I wanted to do with this story. I was playing with a few different options in my head, but I couldn't decide on which route was the best. Which, eventually gave me a bit of a burnout. Hence, the huuuge delay between chapters._

 _I managed to figure it out, though. I now know where I want to go with this, I have the ending pretty much planned out so hopefully this story is going to get finished smoothly and without much trouble._

 _Second Envy POV chapter in a row, set in the episode where Pride gets trapped with Al. Obviously things are a bit different here._

 _See ya next time, kids!_


	17. Chapter 17

"We need to talk," Envy told Pride in the utter darkness beneath the stony dome Van Hohenheim had transmuted.

But how were you supposed to talk to someone who thought you lesser than a cockroach?

How were you supposed to get through to someone who considered himself superior to pretty much every other being in the whole world and was soundly humiliated by a "mere" human?

How were you supposed to not only make peace with someone who would have gleefully slaughtered you just minutes before, but to also make him see that he was unwittingly standing on the very precipice of doom, ready to throw his life into it for a cause that was never his own?

Envy wished they knew. Lust would have figured out what arguments to use, calculating, piercing and precise like her Ultimate Spear. Wrath would have stood his ground without backing down in the face of his adversary's fury, unafraid and stoic. Greed would have turned that infuriating charm of his up to eleven.

All Envy had was their absolute conviction that they needed to try.

The fading faith that Pride wasn't beyond saving. And the throat-clenching dread that he was.

They pushed their vision to the limit of what the arcane mixture of physiology and alchemy allowed, needing to watch Pride as they spoke. They could barely make out his shape a few feet across, his vessel's small arms folded in front of his chest.

He didn't say a word.

Perhaps... perhaps it was best to start with the truth.

So Envy sighed and sat down cross-legged on the ground, trying to force their lips to move.

"You know…" They began very slowly, "I used to be so jealous of all of you," Envy chuckled quietly. "Lust was more beautiful than me, without ever making any effort about it. Greed always knew how to get everything he wanted. Sloth was stronger and faster than I could ever have hoped to be, no matter what body I made for myself. Wrath had power over the whole country. Even Gluttony… stupid as he was, all he needed was something to eat and to be around Lust, and he never knew what fear, pain or doubt is."

It felt oddly… liberating to give voice to all of that under the comforting blanket of utter darkness. Admitting their weaknesses – first to themselves, then to Van Hohenheim, and now to Pride – was something they had never thought they would ever do. In the darkest, deepest trenches of their mind, they had always been mortified of the very idea of someone… _anyone_ … laying eyes on the most personal and intimate reaches of their heart. Envy's heart was far too ugly to be seen like that. And yet… now that they had put it out in the open, their chest felt lighter than it ever had. It was like a terrible weight had been lifted from them.

Pride hummed and narrowed his eyes at them. "And what about me?" He finally asked.

Envy shrugged, "You were the highest of us all, the only one who had Father's full trust, the only one who got to know everything and order us around."

"You're talking in past tense," Pride observed, and they could _feel_ him measuring them with his haughty gaze in the dark.

"Yeah," Envy cocked their head at him. "It was foolish. Lust was beautiful but that only made her a tool for Father to seduce human pawns. Greed always got what he wanted but at the end he reached too far and it nearly got him killed. It still might," they shrugged, "Sloth is fast and strong but he'd rather sleep through eternity than utilize his gifts. Wrath rules over Amestris but in return he must live in a lie and one day he will grow feeble and old and he'll die just like the lowest of his subjects. Gluttony is carefree, yes, but his hunger makes him a little more than an animal where it counts," they tapped their forehead with a slender finger.

"And you," Envy smirked, "for _all_ the importance of your station, you're more enslaved to Father than all of us combined."

"HOW DARE YOU?!" The air inside the earthy dome rustled lightly as Pride rushed towards Envy, little fists balled viciously.

"I wouldn't do that," Envy gave him a cold stare without moving a muscle to react. "You may need light to make your shadows and use your powers… but _I_ don't. Believe me, Pride, you don't want to put your vessel at risk against me."

Their eldest brother stopped himself and just glared at them, and they could make out how the little boy's face twisted into a furious snarl. He was positively seething. Envy sighed. Making Pride the Arrogant angry went against every instinct they had acquired since their creation. He was the oldest, the most powerful and the most cruel. You didn't disobey Pride, you didn't question Pride and you _most certainly_ did not talk down to Pride.

Envy, however, didn't have the time, patience and desire to coddle his ego. Not after the way he had manhandled them just a little while ago.

He needed to hear this.

And they needed to hope he would actually listen. The two of them were close now, close enough for Envy to see a little bit of his pale face in the darkness.

"Look," Envy said softly, "I'm not trying to antagonize you. I simply want you to see the truth."

"What truth?" Pride bit out.

"I understand why Greed went against Father," Envy smiled sadly. "It's in his very nature, right? They can't both rule over the world, after all. What I _don't_ understand is why are you so loyal to him." Envy shrugged. "All of us, we're bound by our sins, aren't we? We are the vices of Father personified because he expelled us from himself. And you are his _pride_ ," Envy stressed on the word, "Shouldn't you be the one who is the most appalled – more so even than Greed – at the prospect of serving someone else? Why are you the one who is his most devoted servant instead?"

Pride was silent for a few moments, blinking slowly and his mouth slightly agape.

And then his expression suddenly changed into the most evil grin that Envy had ever seen on a child's face.

"You seem to mention Greed an awful lot," Pride crooned, "Tell me, Envy, do you rememer the first time he humiliated you?"

Envy's eyes widened. "Shut up," they hissed.

"Yes, I remember it too," Pride stepped closer to them, his big eyes boring into theirs. "Oh? Did you think I _didn't_ know?" The childish giggle that escaped his lips sounded _wrong_ , "Really, Envy? I know all about your sordid, little, incestuous affair. I always have. How long did it take him to throw you away after he used you for the first time? Was it a week? Two? Couldn't have been more than a month," Pride was very close now, his face mere inches from Envy's. His breath tickled their skin. "I saw you. When you found the human girl he chose to lay with instead of you. I watched from the shadows how you cried and sniveled as you disemboweled her."

Envy's fist flew out on its own accord, smashing against't Pride's cheek. The neck of the child-husk snapped back and Pride fell hard on the ground, but he merely laughed as he sat up.

"You're pathetic, Envy," Pride declared. " _You_ presume to lecture _me_ about dignity? You?!" His laughter rang loudly inside the stony dome. "You who always crawled after Greed for the privilege of sucking his cock?"

" _Shut up,_ "Envy growled, bile and hatred and shame washing over their very core, "or I _will_ destroy you. And I won't cry about it."

Pride ignored the threat. "Little Envy the Jealous," he purred, "Thinking that it's all grown up and worthy to teach the rest of the family the error of our ways," Pride snorted contemptuously, "Shall I tell you something else about Greed?"

Envy found themselves unable to speak. They _wanted_ to, they wanted to shout and scream and fight, but they couldn't. All they could do was stare at Pride.

"After you were sent to the North," Pride began, his voice a sadistic drawl. "It occurred to me that you might be too inept to handle even a simple task like recapturing Marcoh. So I went to Greed," their eldest sibling smiled at them, all false sweetness and amity. "I told him that if he wanted to, he was free to go after you and help you. After all, you two always worked together before he left. Do you know what he said?"

Envy swallowed heavily, dreading the inevitable.

"He just laughed and told me that he didn't care, that even if you _died_ , he could easily find another hole to fuck," Pride paused for a moment, giving them a look of such utter condescension that their chest felt tight and raw on the inside. "His words, not mine. You don't mean anything to him, Envy. You never have. You never will."

* * *

Envy heard some of the bones inside Pride's vessel shatter when they slammed the child-husk into the wall of the dome. He screamed in pain but Envy was past caring.

The souls that covered the scaly green hide of their true form howled in hatred and anguish as Envy lifted one of their enormous, clawed arms and smashed him into the rock, again. And again, until the stone cracked and small rays of sunlight broke their way through.

A tiny part of Envy, that small, nearly voiceless, rational part of their mind that wasn't consumed by the heedless rage, realized that the morning had dawned over the Kanama woods.

They had wasted their time on Pride.

It didn't matter. Not in that moment of sublime, agonizing hatred.

He was determined to die serving the damned Dwarf?

Well, so fucking be it.

Envy was sick of him. Sick of his arrogance and his cruelty. Sick of his contempt and his disdain. Sick of every single thing he told them, true as it was. He wasn't worth saving.

A deafening, mindless roar tore out of their throat, echoed by the malformed souls that cluttered their skin and they hit him against the rocks again, claws digging cruelly into his vessel.

And the wall finally broke under the assault of their awakened anger.

In a cascade of stones and clouds of dust the two Homunculi tumbled out of the half-pulverized dome. Everything always seemed so much smaller when Envy shook off the masks and allowed their true, disgusting form to break through.

The sun washed over them and Envy immediately felt shadowy blades and sharp tendrils piercing their thick hide, stinging like the bites of a thousand vipers. Pride's big purple eyes were wide with terror and anger as his husk struggled in Envy's grip.

Red lightning screamed around them as Pride slashed at Envy with his shadows, again and again, blood splattering across the earth and smearing the sides of the dome, and thundering roars echoing in the forest.

This was it. Live or die. Kill or be killed. Two immortal monsters, fighting to the death.

Envy slammed Pride's vessel to the ground as black, shadowy claws dug into their neck and spine, splitting skin, severing muscles and hacking bone almost as fast as the Stone inside Envy repaired the injuries.

Envy was running out of energy. Sustaining this form for too long drained their Philosopher's Stone quickly, especially when it also had to constantly heal them up. They could almost feel it inside, soul after soul flickering out, like candles against a raging typhoon. Each soul lost was getting them closer to death.

They growled in agony and hatred, and _squeezed_. They heard the muffled, high-pitched scream of the child-husk and bared the fangs of their monstrous maw in a victorious snarl.

They never even saw the alchemist until the explosion that erupted around them tore apart half of their huge torso.

The shock wave was so powerful that even their gigantic body could not withstand it. With an echoing screech of pain and dismay Envy fell on their side.

The explosion had severed the long arm that held Pride to the ground and as it began to grow anew, they looked at the place where the sudden attack had come from and their eyes widened.

Kimblee. Holding the Philosopher's Stone they had gotten him between his teeth, almost like a grotesque, red candy.

Gluttony had gotten to Central, and the Dwarf had sent Envy's own pet psychopath, they realized as the hole in their body painfully repaired itself and they tried to crawl away, reassuming the shape of their favorite form.

Coughing up bloody bile, Envy couldn't stop themselves from flinching when they saw the Crimson Alchemist clasping his hands together, the scarlet glow of the transmutation making his pristine white suit seem almost as if it was splattered with blood for a split second as the combustion arrays tattooed on his palms were joined together and triggered another discharge, this one less potent but much more precise.

Fire, grime and gore exploded as the blast tore into Envy and they _screamed_.

"Such a shame," they vaguely heard Zolf's calm, nonchalant voice as their Stone desperately squeezed every ounce of power it had to painfully knit their body back together.

No, no, not like this, dammit!

They panted as they tried to stand up on shaky legs but they were so weakened and wounded that Kimblee felled them with a single kick, smashing the heel of his elegant shoe into their face and throat.

Kimblee took the Philosopher's Stone out of his mouth and _tsk_ ed with his tongue, "The powerful, immortal Homunculus who had me destroy Ishval... Brought low by a human. It's a rather disgraceful irony, don't you think?"

Envy tried to speak, but they couldn't get words out, red light sizzling around their head and chest. "What's that?" The Crimson Alchemist frowned curiously as he stalked closer to Envy.

"They..." Envy wheezed, "They're gonna kill you too, you nutcase!" They coughed, their chest feeling raw and their Stone getting weaker and weaker. "Do you think my father cares about you? That Pride does?"

"I don't suppose they do, no," Zolf shrugged as he loomed over Envy. "But if you think I fear death, then you had me pegged just as wrong as the military did. Here's a lesson to you, Homunculus, from a lowly human such as myself. Those who deal in death must always embrace its pursuit. Try to think on it as you scream," his teal eyes were almost aglow with sadistic pleasure as he grinned, knelt over them and pressed his palms against Envy's heaving chest and bare, bloodied stomach.

They tried to fight him off, but he just stepped on their wrist and they couldn't move, and for the first time in their long life, Envy was afraid of a human.

Of the same human who was once nothing but the extension of their malevolence towards his own kind, just as they were Father's.

Even in their state, they could see the irony of it, and couldn't help but wonder if they didn't deserve a demise like this after all.

And then he triggered another explosion, tearing at Envy's insides from within.

And they did scream then, their spine arching and creaking, and their vision lost in a haze of red.

In reality it was over for less than ten seconds, a part of Envy could still tell, but it had felt like an eternity. As their body healed itself, their teary eyes focused on Kimblee, on the man who was going to be the end of them.

He was standing over them, looking huge and ominous like Death itself.

Funny, Kimblee wasn't a tall man, he had never looked imposing or physically frightening. But when he stood over you, staring down at you with those rabid eyes on that serene face... Envy thought that they could taste the terror of all those Ishvalans he had murdered on their orders. Or maybe it was the taste of their own blood when they bit their tongue just moments ago.

It wouldn't take much more, Envy realized. Their Stone felt almost completely exhausted.

"Now," Zolf J. Kimblee whistled almost amicably. "Where were we? Ah, yes. More scr..."

His words were suddenly cut short and a perplexed expression set on his angular face. His chest lurched forward and _burst_ from within. Kimblee opened his mouth but no sound came out.

All Envy could do was stare.

Stare at the hand coated in Kimblee's blood and covered in the grey sheen of the Ultimate Shield. Looking up at it from the ground, Envy could even make out the red Ouroboros sigil etched on its back.

Stare at the human heart still beating faintly until the armored hand flexed its claws and tore it to chunks with a single move of its fingers.

Something shoved from behind at Kimblee, who had died on his feet, and tossed his body aside as if it was nothing but trash.

"G-greed?" Envy whispered, watching as the Ultimate Shield receded from his face, revealing his stupid, handsome features.

Greed.

Greed was here, Greed.

He came for them. Funny, though, he looked afraid. What was he afraid of? Cocky suited him better.

But at least they got to die looking at his face, Envy thought as they lost consciousness.

* * *

 _Third Envy chapter in a row. I tried and I tried to think of a way to shove a Greed chapter somewhere in between, but it just wouldn't work for me - it disrupted the flow and fucked the narrative up. The next one will definitely be his, but those three had to be strung together._

 _See you next time, where things will get oh-so much worse._

 _Rinso out!_


	18. Chapter 18

The car's suspension shook and creaked when Ling hit yet another bump and Greed's jaw clenched in frustration and anger. Usually he might have snapped at the kid, but the honest truth was that his mind was far too preoccupied to bother.

He tightened his grip on Envy's unconscious body instead. Their skin felt hot and feverish, faint red light flickering underneath the surface as their animus was trying to absorb the energy of the Philosopher's Stone and restore them after what those fuckers did.

His spine stiffened with impotent rage at the thought.

As if he had almost sensed his emotions, Ling's slanted eyes found his in the rear view mirror for a second before the princeling turned his attention back to the road that was slithering between the rolling hills in the outskirts of Central.

Ed, apparently, didn't believe in such courtesies, because he turned his body towards the back seat and stared at the Homunculi, his expression hard to read.

"Is it working?" he asked.

All Greed could do was shrug, looking back at Envy and reaching to stroke a lock of their long hair away from their ashen face.

Like he had nothing more important to do than answer the boy's questions...

Even if he lived to see a thousand years, he didn't think he would ever forget the sounds of Envy's agony, the screams and the explosions echoing in the woods as he and the two kids hurried desperately towards Kanama, or the sight of them covered in blood and looking as if they were half a step beyond death's door.

Kimblee had died far too fast, in Greed's opinion. A sick part of him was downright incensed that he hadn't gotten to spend weeks torturing that piece of garbage for daring to hurt Envy. He had never had a taste for true sadism, but this guy... Greed silently clenched his teeth, cursing Kimblee, Pride, Father, the Promised Day... _Himself._

But no...

He had to focus on what was important. Otherwise he feared he might go insane.

Envy still lived. Barely, perhaps, but they were still here, with him.

And damn it all, if it didn't work and the Stone Ed had found on Kimblee's corpse and transmuted into their system wasn't enough, Greed was gonna tear his chest open and use his own core to heal Envy up.

A surge of red light crackled around Envy's body and then their skin didn't feel clammy and burning anymore.

When they opened their purple eyes and stared up at him, Greed's breath nearly hitched in his throat and his head felt almost dizzy with relief.

Why was his vision blurry all of a sudden? He blinked rapidly, drinking in the sight of Envy awake and looking pale but healed, not daring to let go of them. His hands were trembling slightly.

It was Ed's voice that broke the silence.

"Well, I guess that answers my question," Greed could hear the smile in the alchemist's voice, but he was neither capable nor willing to avert his eyes from his Envy.

Envy, however, was.

Their eyelids fluttered and they frowned in brief confusion before they gently shifted their body out of Greed's hold and moved to sit up, looking at their surroundings and finally focusing on Fullmetal.

"Pipsqueak?" They sighed and smiled half-heartedly to themselves when he immediately scowled at the nickname. "Didn't think I'd ever see _you_ again. I was with your dad and your brother until just last night."

"You were?" Ed's eyes widened and his shoulders tensed visibly as he roughly twisted in his seat to look at the Homunculi in the back, somewhat to Ling's annoyance who was just making a long turn downhill. "Where are they? I didn't see them anywhere around the forest, is Al okay, did he say anything, where would he go, what would he do, does he know about the Promised Day, are..."

He would have probably continued to fire questions at Envy like a machine gun if Greed hadn't interrupted him with a quiet growl. "Holy shit, kid," he grumbled. "Give it a second. Envy just woke up. You don't just go off like this on someone who went through Hell, for fuck's sake." He forced himself to ignore the fact that he had all but went crazy on Ed's girl too back in Resembool when she told him Envy was alive.

He shut up when he felt a small, dainty hand touching his arm and looked back at Envy.

"It's okay," they said softly. "He has to know," they added before turning their attention back to Fullmetal and sighed, "Yes, your brother is fine... I think."

"What do you mean?" Ed frowned.

"Pride had somehow... gotten control of his suit of armor for a while. Your dad took care of it, though," they added when they saw the expression on the young alchemist's face. "Hohenheim has a plan about the Promised Day. He and the Tin Can must already be in Central."

Ed gulped and turned to Ling. "Let's just hope we're not too late," he told the Xingese prince who nodded solemnly. "The eclipse will begin in just a few hours."

"Is Pride still alive?" Envy asked, looking as if the thought had just occured to them.

"Yeah," Ling answered as he pushed on the gas. "He managed to slink off. I sensed his signature fleeing towards Central as Ed and Greed rushed to help you."

"Oh..." Envy fell silent at that and Greed wondered – not for the first time – what exactly had happened in Kanama.

* * *

By the time Ling stopped the car near the slope of a grassy hill that rose above the valley that Central had sprawled over Envy had all but retreated into themselves, offering pretty much nothing in terms of conversation and giving only concise, laconic answers to Ed's questions.

And they had barely said a couple of words to Greed since they woke up.

Before, he might have considered this unusual. When Envy was feeling down back in the old days they had tended to turn surly and cruel instead of silent and withdrawn. Nowadays Greed had become more or less used to all sorts of crazy crap mucking his life up, and he did remember that Envy had seemed way off even before they disappeared into the North, so he wasn't really… _surprised_ at this change of patterns.

Which didn't mean that he wasn't worried.

But he knew Envy far too well. They wouldn't open up in front of humans, they would never show off their wounds just like that.

So when Ling turned the ignition off and slumped back in his seat, Greed leaned forward and said, "Hey, kids, why don't you two take a little stroll while we wait for the others, huh? Get a breath of fresh air and all that before we head off to kick the old man's ass?" His voice was nonchalant and his smile easy, flashing his white fangs at the princeling and the blonde alchemist.

Fullmetal stared at him like he was in a bit of a loss but Ling looked right into Greed's purple eyes and nodded.

"Come on, Ed," he said and clapped his friend on the shoulder before he opened the door and stepped out of the car. "Come on, get out," he repeated from the outside as Ed seemed to hesitate for a moment but he eventually followed Ling.

When Greed was satisfied that they weren't within an immediate earshot he turned to Envy. They were staring through the window with a blank face and Greed briefly wondered what they were really seeing. It wasn't the countryside, that was for sure.

He slowly reached a hand and caressed Envy's cheek. They turned to him and he nearly cringed at the hollow look in their big eyes.

"What's going on in that pretty head of yours, sweet cheeks?" He asked softly. "Talk to me," he implored them when they didn't say anything.

They just looked at him for a while. Just when he was about to say something, they spoke up. "I tried to save him," Envy said quietly. "Tried to convince him to leave Father."

"What are you talking about?" Greed frowned, feeling confused.

"Pride," Envy sighed heavily. "He wouldn't listen. He…" They hesiated for a second. "We ended up fighting," they shrugged.

Greed just blinked a few times, trying to digest what he just heard. He opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it up when he realized he was coming up with nothing.

"Why would you do something like that?" was what he finally settled on

The look in Envy's eyes was briefly clouded with hurt. "You wouldn't understand," they whispered and averted their gaze from him.

He lifted a hand to carefully cup their chin in his hand and turn their face back towards him. "Try me," Greed insisted, his tone soft but serious.

Envy took a deep breath and lightly pursed their lips.

"Humans," they simply said.

"What about them?" He frowned. Maybe Envy _was_ right, because right now he truly didn't understand.

Envy stared at him unblinkingly for a moment before they gulped and said, "I want to be like them. I've always wanted to be like them. It's why I hated them so much." The expression on their face was haunting. "All we've ever done is trample them and make them hurt each other, and yet they keep caring, they keep struggling. They keep loving each other," they added finally, their voice almost inaudible.

And suddenly Greed understood and felt an entirely new wave of hatred for his father washing over his heart.

To think that he had considered his own nature a sick and perverse joke…

He had nothing on Envy.

And he had never stopped to even think about it before, had never given any serious consideration on what made Envy what they were. He had never wondered what they were envious _of_.

Everything made sense now. Every-fucking-thing.

"You were right, you know," Envy spoke again and Greed's attention returned to his lover, to his younger sibling who had been created to always feel hurt, whose pain was inescapable, woven into the very fabric of their being. They were looking away from him again, as if even maintaining eye contact was taxing. "When you told me he doesn't care about us. You didn't even know how right you were," they gave a small shrug, almost as if they were talking to themselves now. "And I thought… I thought, maybe I could try and turn it around. Maybe if _I_ cared, it would be enough." They exhaled softly, "But it's not. We're not like that. We can't be. He saw to that when he made us."

Greed felt as if there was a painful lump stuck in his throat. "Envy, listen to me," he said purposefully and they turned to him, eyes vacant. " _I_ care about you. I always have," he swallowed and forced himself to say the words that seemed stuck in his gullet, the words he had always kept hidden behind his swagger and his smirks. "You're the only reason why I agreed to work for him again."

Envy just gave him a small, heartbroken smile and reached to touch his face with the tips of their slender fingers. "You don't have to say things like that, Greed," they whispered. "I… I know it's not true. I know it can't be. It's okay. It's good enough that you're standing against him now."

For a moment he was so stunned that he couldn't fully process their words.

They thought he was _lying_ to them…?

No. _No!_ This was _not_ acceptable!

But was it really surprising?

Had he ever given them a reason to believe him now?

All they had ever wanted from him was his affection and devotion, to experience what humans had. All he had ever done was turn that into a mockery of what those emotions truly meant. And all he had ever achieved was to bask in his own emptiness and stomp on their heart again and again, adding his own twisted contribution to their pain.

And here they were now, almost two centuries later.

He was about to speak, to unleash a torrent of words, to explain himself, to beg for forgiveness if need be... but then someone knocked on the window and he saw Ling bending over to look at them. Behind him Greed noticed a dark van driving up towards their location and pulling over. Ling's henchmen and the chimeras waved at Ed who was waiting for them at the bottom of the hill.

"Sorry for interrupting you, guys," he said, his tone earnest. "But the others are here. We have to move."

Envy just nodded at him and steeled their expression before they opened the door and stepped out of the car. They didn't look back at Greed.

* * *

When they managed to get into the capital they found it roiling with chaos and fear. Pillars of thick smoke were rising from the direction of Central High Command, the sounds of gunfire and cannons going off faint but audible for the ears of the Homunculi. Crowds of civilians were trying to evacuate on their own and leave the city but Central was being put on lockdown and the whole thing was unraveling in a very ugly manner. They quickly realized that moving on foot would actually be safer and faster than using the van.

Thankfully Greed and Envy knew the layout of all the best and hidden pathways, back alleys and secret entrances that riddled Central and were untraceable on any map or city plan.

They still had to be careful, though. It was one thing for a single person to use those routes; it was a bit different when you were herding a group consisting of two Homunculi, three Xingese warriors, two former soldiers who had been made into chimeras and a State Alchemist. At one point they had to hide in a tiny, dark alley behind an old dilapidated ale house as an armored truck roared across the boulevard just a few meters away, heading towards downtown Central and the civilians hurrying towards the outskirts huddled together in fright.

Leaning against the dirty wall of the ale house, Greed tried to listen in on them, figuring that it wouldn't hurt to know what was going down.

"Heard Mustang's turned traitor," a guy who sounded like a grumpy old fart said, "He wants to be Führer now that Bradley's dead." Greed heard him spit on the ground. "It was pro'lly his guys who did him in in the East, I tell you."

Wait, what?

That couldn't be right.

Wrath, dead? Not that Greed was going to mourn him – in fact he had been hoping to get a chance to finally gut his youngest brother personally, for Bido and the rest of the Devil's Nest gang – but he held no illusions. The one-eyed runt was _not_ easy to kill. The old fool must have been mistaken somehow.

Greed edged closer to them, his back almost glued to the wall of the house.

"The Ice Queen'll stop him," a younger-sounding man with a slight lisp declared. "She's gonna chain Mustang up and cut his head off herself, State Alchemist or not. Tha's how they do things in Briggs," he added with an air of certainty, as if he was some sort of authority on military matters.

"Yer full o'shit," a third guy who talked - and smelled – like a drunkard scoffed. "My cuz lives near the headquarters and when he phoned us before he ran off, he said that Armstrong's men are fighting with our guys, too. She ain't gonna cut nobody's head off, she's gone rogue."

" _I_ heard on the radio that Mustang's actually on _our_ side," an old lady raised her voice, "He saved the Führer's wife from a band of rebels." Her words were cut short when another truck thundered by.

Son of a bitch. No wonder the city was a mess. Nobody seemed to know what was actually going on. And if the chaos and the panic kept it up like this the eclipse was going to roll over pretty much unnoticed and the old man was going to begin harvesting this country.

Greed swore under his breath and turned to look at the others.

"We're running out of time," he said. "We gotta get to the lair _now_."

"But there's a battle going on above it," Ed frowned. "It seems the Colonel has made his move," he added to himself.

"We may have to go into it," even Ling sounded as if he was hesitating.

Greed clenched his jaw in frustration, unsure what to do. Speed was of an essence here and jumping into a military free-for-all was _not_ going to help.

"Wait!" Envy spoke suddenly, looking as if they had remembered something important. Everyone turned their eyes towards them and they managed to fake looking smug at the attention. It was probably convincing for everyone but Greed. "The Third Laboratory," they said as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "There's a secret tunnel that leads to it just two blocks away," Envy nodded in the direction they wanted them to go, "And from there we can go down to the lair very quickly. We can be in Father's throne room in less than an hour if we hurry."

Greed thought it through for a few seconds, found no glaring flaws in the plan and nodded.

* * *

As it turned out, he had been slightly wrong.

Just a little bit, though, he thought irritably as his armored claws tore into the face of the screeching, pale-skinned abomination that lunged at him. The cyclopean monster started convulsing as foul-smelling ichor sprayed over the Ultimate Shield but it didn't die because of course it didn't.

"What the Hell are those things?!" Ling shouted as he slashed at the arm of another of the creatures with his sword. "I've never felt something like them before!" The thing ignored the injury and rushed at the prince with an ear-splitting scream but Lan Fan threw it off its balance with one of her kunai (just a fancy name for a throwing knife, in Greed's opinion, but hey, as long as it made the Xingese happy, who was he to object?) and brought it down it with a powerful sucker punch of her automail arm. The thing got up almost as quickly as it had fallen, the blade of the kunai sticking almost comically out of its misshapen skull.

"They were just a pet project for Wrath's scientists," Envy panted as they nimbly dodged the snapping jaw of yet another monster and transformed their arm into a wide, curved blade to hack its head off. "One of the doctors had an idea about an immortal army or something – I wasn't paying much attention at the time," they griped frustratedly when they saw that that didn't work out well either and the beheaded body rose up. "The generals above must have gotten desperate to unleash them." Their voice was almost silenced by the sound of Ed transmuting and the walls of the sewer were briefly bathed in an alchemical glow, and they shook and rumbled as rocky spikes erupted from the floor and impaled the creatures' feet and legs, pinning them down and giving them a brief respite.

"Well…" Darius groused and hissed in pain as he pressed an ape-like hand to the wound on his shoulder. "They certainly don't have the decency to die, so I guess the experiment was a success, huh?"

" _Shit!_ " His buddy Heinkel cursed loudly, his cat vision allowing him to easily see into the dark of the underground tunnel beyond the currently trapped mass of writhing, screeching monsters. "More of them are coming!" the lion chimera roared. "A _lot_ more," he added when countless screams echoed in the sewers.

"RUN FOR IT!" Ed shouted and Greed couldn't really argue with that.

Envy took the front as they knew the system of tunnels better than anyone. Greed, old Fu and Heinkel remained in the back, as they were the best equipped to serve as the first line of defense against pursuers.

Greed heard the monsters screeching and braying for blood as they chased after the group. He took a moment to take a brief look back as he ran and immediately regretted when he saw the sea of horrors rushing at their heels.

They ran and ran, Envy taking frantic and seemingly random turns in the labyrinthine web of tunnels. Once they were in danger of being cornered and overrun by the one-eyed monstrosities but Ed used his alchemy to collapse the wall of the sewer on top the advancing creatures. That won them a bit more time but it wasn't enough.

The bright walls of the Third Laboratory greeted them so suddenly that even Greed was caught unprepared and squinted for a brief second.

Envy had managed to lead them through the tunnels, he realized.

But none of them knew what to do about the horde of monsters that poured into the Laboratory after them. Now they got caught in the open.

"Form a circle!" Fu's gruff, heavily accented voice ordered. "Back to back!"

Everyone moved like one, knowing that they had to fight their way through in order to be able to get to Father's lair. Greed found himself with Ling on one side and Envy on the other. He flexed his armored claws, covered head to toe with the Ultimate Shield and his shoulders stiff. Next to him Envy crouched and tensed, and he knew they were getting ready to unleash their true form.

This all had the feeling of a last ditch effort and it left a sour taste in Greed's mouth.

He wasn't ready to go out like this.

Not when he just got Envy back.

Not when he had so much to prove to them.

And then he heard Fullmetal mutter "Oh _fuck!_ " Hah. Funny. He had never heard the kid curse before. He wondered what had gotten his panties in a twist, but Ed wasn't in his immediate field of vision.

Before he could realize what exactly was happening, though, Ed triggered another transmutation and the floor of the Laboratory around them swiftly elevated itself, forming a circular wall around their group.

"What are you d…"

Greed's question was cut short by a thundering boom and suddenly a wave of intense heat washed over them. He could see the glow of the fires above the wall Ed had just made for them and he heard hundreds of monsters screeching in utter agony and fury.

It was as if the Laboratory itself shook and trembled as the inferno unleashed itself. It was over as soon as it had began and Ed swiftly deconstructed the charred stony barrier.

Greed turned to him, to ask him what the fuck had happened and then he saw a man he had forgotten all about.

Roy Mustang was standing at the entrance of the Third Laboratory one arm outstretched and his thumb and middle finger pressed together as if he was ready to make a snap. Hawkeye was next to him, her pose unmistakably that of an experienced marksman and a gun in her hands. The immortal army had been turned to ash and scorched remains in their feet.

"Hey there, Fullmetal," The Flame Alchemist said evenly and eyed their group. He immediately frowned when his dark eyes landed on Greed and Envy but he didn't offer anything more.

"Colonel?" Ed sounded bewildered and glad at the same time as he grinned at the tall black-haired man. "I think this is the first time I'm actually happy to see you."

"Cute," Mustang didn't sound amused at all, nor did he lower his arm. " _Please_ tell me you're aware that those two with you are Homunculi."

Ed's amber-colored eyes turned to Greed and Envy for a second before he raised his hands, his face turning serious. "It's alright, Colonel," he said, "They're on our side."

"You'll forgive me if I find that hard to believe."

"Easy there, hotshot," Greed narrowed his eyes at Mustang and his claws flexed involuntary. "The kid's telling the truth. We're fighting the guy behind all of this, too, same as you."

"Is that so?" The Flame Alchemist looked at him, his expression derisive. "Then would you mind answering a question of mine?"

"Dammit!" Ed suddenly sounded… afraid? "We don't have time for this, Mustang! The solar eclipse will start soon, and once it does this whole country will _die!_ "

Mustang simply ignored the kid, staring right at Greed.

"A friend of mine died some time ago. He was killed by one of your kind. I know it wasn't Lust, Gluttony or the one you call Wrath." Greed's anger rose when he heard Lust's name. This piece of shit had killed her instead of having the good manners to die and deprive Father of his last human sacrifice. "So which one did it? _WHICH ONE OF YOU MURDERED MAES HUGHES?_ " Mustang roared, his features twisting in hatred. His shoulders were almost trembling with barely-suppressed rage.

Greed felt Envy freeze next to him.

And he suddenly was terrified.

Terrified that they would say _something_ and bring this guy's fury down on them.

Yeah, right.

Like he was going to let that motherfucker burn them like he did Lust.

So he did the only thing that made sense, without even thinking about it.

Greed tossed his head back and laughed heartily.

"You really want to know?" He asked Mustang and gave him a grin full of shark fangs when he got only a silent snarl in response. "You sure?" He stepped forward. "You _really_ sure?"

Hawkeye raised her pistol at him when he moved towards her man but Greed ignored her. Her little toy was useless against the Ultimate Shield, and she had nothing to do with this anyway.

"Greed?" He heard Ed's voice from behind. "Greed, what the Hell do you think you're doing?" He ignored him, too.

"You killed my sister, you dumb fuck," Greed allowed his anger to come out, to direct all of Mustang's attention towards him. "And you presume to ask me questions? _Fine_ ," he hissed. "I'll tell you who killed your best friend."

Mustang's eyes widened and his gloved fingers tensed.

Greed was just a few meters away from him.

And he uttered the first lie in his life.

" _I DID!_ " He roared and lunged towards Roy Mustang who immediately snapped his fingers.

The last thing he heard before the torrent of fire washed over his armored body was Envy's screaming his name.

* * *

 _Greed putting himself in danger for the sake of the people he cares about was one of the big moments that marked his character development in the show. So ever since pretty much the beginning of this story I knew that having him take the blame for Hughes was something that I was gonna work towards. I guess we'll get to see which is stronger, fire alchemy or the Ultimate Shield?_

 _Also, in my mind, this isn't letting Envy get away scot-free. In my story they might have changed for the better and they might have already suffered quite a bit, both physically and emotionally, but that doesn't and shouldn't erase their villainous deeds from before. But I suspect that for this version of Envy watching Greed take the blame for their crime would be almost as bad as getting burnt themselves._

 _See you next time, people!_


	19. Chapter 19

Funny thing about fire alchemy, Greed thought as the shockwave of the blast Mustang unleashed at him threw him a couple of feet back mid-pounce and thus allowed the flames to close over his carbon armor.

The guy wasn't pouring the fire out of his fingertips or something stupid like that. No, Mustang was actually transmuting the _air_ , rearranging the hydrogen molecules and using the spark his gloves produced when he snapped his fingers to get an ignition going. It was not _that_ different than what Ed had described to him about Kimblee's explosions on their way to Kanama.

Greed had barely listened to the kid back then, but a few things had stuck. And when you had been alive for more than two hundred years and had spent almost half of it doing the bidding of someone like the old man, you kind of picked up this and that along the way. Sure, Homunculi couldn't do alchemy, and Greed had always considered their ilk to be just a bunch of pompous assholes, but that didn't mean that he was entirely ignorant.

He crouched on one knee as the fire roared around him, planting his feet firmly on the floor and trusting in the Ultimate Shield to give him the time to wait it out. The glow of the flames was so bright that it was threatening to blind him and he lifted his armored arms in front of his face to block it out.

He heard the air behind him ringing with energy as someone – Ed, he realized a second later – triggered a transmutation and a loud rumble thundered across the Laboratory as a wall suddenly cut Greed off from the rest of the group.

Smart, Greed decided, not begrudging the kid's move.

He had gotten to know the Fullmetal Alchemist a lot better in the days they spent together before the Promised Day. Sure, he was impulsive, short-tempered and a little too idealistic.

But he was also the smartest boy Greed had ever seen. Smarter, in fact, than most grown men Greed had ever known.

Ever since Lust died, he knew that the old man had something in mind about Mustang. Greed didn't know who the rest of the human sacrifices were, but he had been perfectly aware that the Elrics and the Flame Alchemist were considered invaluable resources for the Promised Day – Pride had _specifically_ forbidden him and Envy to kill them at one point, he remembered with some amusement. And he had made sure to share all that with Ed when they stayed in Resembool.

The kid had finally added two and two together. With the eclipse looming in ever closer, his actions had allowed Greed to take out one of the vital components of Father's plan. He wondered briefly if Ed himself had done it consciously, or had he told himself he was protecting the rest of the group from Mustang's flames because, holy shit, the guy was out of control.

But hey, as long as it put Envy out of Mustang's immediate attention, Greed didn't really care.

The fire was all around him, infernal waves of intense, blazing heat washing over him again and again, sucking the air out of the room and billowing so loud that it made Greed's head hurt. The Ultimate Shield endured the onslaught, but Greed was beginning to feel his skin throbbing beneath the cover of his armor.

When the flames burnt themselves out Greed immediately jumped up, using all his superhuman power. He vaguely realized that the sight of him must have been quite the fright, lunging out of the cloud of black smoke with claws outstretched, his armor so heated that it was glowing like molten metal.

Hawkeye must have thought so too because her brown eyes widened and her reflexes kicked up before Mustang could snap his fingers again and she opened fire on him, once, twice.

Her pitiful bullets bounced off the Ultimate Shield and then Greed was upon them.

"GET BACK!" Mustang frantically shouted at her and instinctively raised one arm to protect her and himself from the sudden attack.

Greed's glowing, clawed hand closed around the black-haired alchemist's forearm. He screamed in pain and Greed could smell the stench of burnt cloth and human skin. Wisps of smoke curled up from the place where he held his grip.

"Gotcha," Greed flashed him a fanged grin and who knew, maybe he imagined it, but he could even hear the flesh of the guy sizzling under the touch of his heated hand.

What he _definitely_ heard was a pair of fingers snapping and before he knew it a powerful blast of fire struck him right in the face.

The flames were so potent that Greed's neck bent back almost to the point of breaking, leaving him blinded and dazed. And they didn't let go. The fire washed over him again and again, each second straining the Ultimate Shield more and more, the carbon layer beginning to twist under the fiery assault. Greed's head felt like it was about to burst from the pressure and he staggered back.

And then, finally, he began feeling pain.

Mustang was intending to roast his brain through the Ultimate Shield, to use his own nearly-indestructible armor to literally cook him from within.

Greed couldn't stop himself from crying out and when he opened his mouth the flames wormed their way _in_.

That was when the real pain began.

He didn't know when he came to it and found himself on his knees, smoke rising up from his smoldering body. It mustn't have been long, as his Stone was still repairing the scorched insides of his throat and the blistered skin on his face, red lighting crackling around his head. Greed looked up at Mustang. The guy's face was pale and sweaty, blood dripping from the charred wound Greed had made when he grabbed at him.

"Hughes uncovered your plan," Mustang narrowed his eyes, visibly fighting the pain of his injury as he grit his teeth. "And you removed him. You made Gracia a widow. You took Elicia's father away from her. For what? So you can plunge this country into mayhem?"

"That's rich," Greed rasped and spat blood at the Flame Alchemist's boots, the Ultimate Shield slithering up his head once more. He groaned in pain when he willed his legs to move and he stood up shakily. "Don't _you_ know all about following orders, huh? Weren't you one of the dogs of the military who turned Ishval into a blood-soaked wasteland?" Greed laughed in his face. "Wonder why we didn't hear you barking so angrily then? Then again," he winked at Mustang, hamming it up and reveling in the lie he had to keep spewing to keep his Envy safe, "the Ishvalans at least had the courage to fight. Your pal went down like a chump, sniveling about his family until the end."

The pillar of fire that erupted beneath his feet engulfed his whole body with a deafening thunder. Mustang had somehow upped the heat of the transmutation and Greed felt as if he was boiling in magma. The pain hit him so hard that he fell on his hands and knees again, twitching and screaming as his own Ultimate Shield was turned against him, trapping him in a skin-tight cage of glowing-hot carbon. Was that how Lust had felt before he burned her to ash?

His Shield was keeping him alive – if agonizing – but even it couldn't last forever. Just maintaining it under the merciless assault of the inferno Mustang had unleashed was draining Greed's power badly.

The gloves. He had to get to the bastard's gloves. Or remove his hands altogether.

With a roar, Greed stood up once more, his armored body ablaze.

He made a step towards Mustang but he snapped his fingers again and this time the flames hit Greed like a hurricane. The shock wave threw him on his back and the fire covered him head to toe. And the Ultimate Shield finally gave out, the Philosopher's Stone inside Greed incapable to keep up with the never-ending destruction of his body.

"You _dare_ speak of him like this?!" He didn't know how he was able to hear Mustang over his own screams until he realized that the fire had ravaged his face and throat, incinerating his vocal cords. "You _dare_ throw the war you engineered in my face?! You want to see what I did in Ishval?" The Flame Alchemist sounded crazed with rage, consumed by the fires of his vengeance. "I'll show you _exactly_ what my alchemy can do!"

The next wave of flames actually succeeded in killing Greed instead of simply torturing him. He woke up as his body regenerated itself, red light frantically sizzling around him. He tried to move, to stand up, but he wasn't quick enough.

Greed jumped away the moment he heard the snap of Mustang's fingers but the blast caught him all the same and he was again twisting and screaming on the floor of the Third Laboratory, smelling his own flesh getting roasted into charcoal.

"Colonel!" A woman's voice? Must have been Hawkeye, Greed's mind realized sluggishly as his injuries once again knitted themselves up. "Colonel, stop! Colonel! ROY!"

And, just like that, the fire disappeared.

Propping himself up on an elbow, Greed saw Mustang turning to his subordinate, who was gripping his outstretched arm, her grim face determined and her eyes wide with a silent plea.

Greed wasn't going to get a better chance.

He summoned all his strength, all his frantic despair, even all the pain.

And he lunged.

Only this time he wasn't going for Mustang.

Covering his body with the Ultimate Shield once again, Greed crashed into the soot-stained white wall of the Laboratory, going through bricks and mortar like a battering ram.

This fucker was far too dangerous. And this was not just about his precious Hughes. This was the fury of a man whose strings had been manipulated by monsters the whole time he had served the military. A man who had committed atrocities for nothing. For _worse_ than nothing. And he finally knew it, he was finally able to lash out. Greed didn't think he even saw him for himself, at this moment to Mustang he was probably a way to finally strike against all those shadowy figures who had ruined him and his country.

He had to keep him as far away from Envy as he could.

Greed crashed his way back into the tunnels and ran, forcing his Ultimate Shield down in order to conserve as much of what was left of his Stone as possible. He heard Mustang howling in rage and when he looked back he saw fire erupting from the hole he had made with his body, bathing the dark walls of the sewers in orange glow. Heat poured out of the Laboratory, followed by the sound of frenzied footsteps.

Good.

Mustang was in pursuit.

Neither of them saw it coming when the shadows on the walls of the tunnel suddenly moved on their own accord and closed in around the fleeing Homunculus and the crazed State Alchemist, fanged maws materializing into the blackness and snarling hatefully as a thousand violet eyes pierced them under their gaze from every surface imaginable.

A big tendril made of swirling shadows plunged into Greed's belly and stuck out of his back, while multiple smaller claws dug into his arms and legs, pinning him in place. It wasn't terribly different than the trick Ed had tried to use on the one-eyed immortal monsters they had encountered on their way to the Third Laboratory.

And after Mustang's fire, it honestly didn't hurt that much.

The cold that followed Pride's presence was almost welcome, although it promised nothing good. Greed felt shadows twisting up his back and shoulders, holding even his head secure. He bared his teeth and groaned in pain as he forced his neck to move and turned to look back at Mustang.

He hadn't fared much better. Black webs of pulsating shadows had strung his arms up, immobilizing him and splintering to keep his fingers from making another one of his tiresome snaps. Half a step behind him Hawkeye had gotten caught in it too.

 _Well, well, what do we have here?_ Pride's immaterial's voice hummed at them. _A traitor and the last human sacrifice. Father will be_ so _pleased to see you both. It's time, now._

And then the shadows closed in on them until Greed saw nothing but blackness and felt only cold.

* * *

 _I wondered if it wouldn't be better to make the format of this chapter a little different, devoting half of it to Greed and another to Envy so we can see what they're up to while all of this goes down. Ultimately I decided against it, as it didn't sit right with me and the POV structure I like to implement in my stories._

 _So Envy will get a chapter of their own next time, just keep in mind that for a portion of it it will overlap time-wise with this one. The climax of FMA is a nightmare to write, btw. There's a thousand things happening at once and even though I have limited myself to only two POV characters and I can ignore everything I don't immediately need, I still need to not only remember how it ALL happened in the show but to also how it ALL plays down in this AU too even if we don't get to see it directly. Definitely gives me even more appreciation of the show, a climax like that is no joke to conceive._

 _Until next time, boys and girls!_


	20. Chapter 20

"GREED!" Envy screamed as the fool jumped towards Mustang and was immediately met by a blazing torrent of fire, horror gripping their very core as they realized what had he just done.

They wanted to move, to rush forward and stop this.

Envy still remembered how it felt when they had learned that Lust had died at the hands of the Flame Alchemist. She had been incinerated again and again, until her Stone ran out of souls and she crumbled to ash in Mustang's feet. And it was all because of Envy's idea to frame Maria Ross for Hughes' murder.

And now the same thing was going to happen to Greed. To Greed who hadn't even been the one to kill Hughes.

No. No way Envy was going to let him die for what they did.

But when Envy made to intervene, they heard the sound of alchemical energy being discharged and the floor before them was suddenly transmuted and a portion of it rose up, like a wall. The last thing Envy saw of Greed was him dropping down on one knee, arms in front of his face and head, the Ultimate Shield getting so heated that it was beginning to glow. The fires of Mustang's revenge raged all around him.

With a shrill cry Envy smashed their fist against the wall, the stony surface cracking under the full weight of their swing.

"TAKE IT DOWN!" They shrieked at the Pipsqueak without even turning to look at him and hit the wall again, making another crater with their fist. "TAKE IT DOWN NOW! I HAVE TO HELP HIM!"

He grabbed them from behind and forcefully pulled them away instead.

"Dammit, you're heavier than you look," the Pipsqueak grunted strenuously. "Guys, a little help here?!"

Envy felt more hands – these ones not feeling entirely… _human_ – clasping around their shoulders and arms, helping Fullmetal pull them away from the wall, the fire and Greed. Step by fucking step, and they struggled and thrashed against each one.

"NO!" It was odd, to feel so hysterically horrified. It was as if a tiny part of you could disassociate from the rest and just observe the tempest that ate you from within, to watch as the fear seared off thought and reason. And it wasn't the same as when you were afraid for yourself. The bodily harm Kimblee and Pride had inflicted on them in Kanama had nothing on the pain that gripped Envy's core now . "LET ME GO! LET ME GO! I CAN'T LET HIM DIE LIKE THIS!"

And then they heard Greed finally screaming in pain, his voice carrying faintly across the wall that separated them, and they nearly tore out of the hold of Edward Elric and his chimera henchmen who had to scramble to keep their footing.

" _Let me go or I'll kill you all!_ " Envy growled, their throat feeling raw and their voice hoarse as they kept fighting and trying to break free. "You think I care about any of _you_?! _Let. Me. Go._ "

Still, the Pipsqueak did not relent.

He shifted his body slightly and the two chimeras followed his example, slamming Envy against the wall of the Laboratory. The barrier was not _that_ far away but as they stared at the fiery glow that blazed behind it and listened to the roar of the flames, it felt like it might as well be on the other side of the world.

"I finally figured it out," Fullmetal hissed in their face and whether they liked it or not, they looked back at him. He looked angry, panting from the effort of dragging Envy off against their will. "It was you, wasn't it?"

Envy said nothing for a moment, before they swallowed and whispered, "Yes," staring at Edward's golden eyes.

The alchemist's jaw tightened and he had to visibly stop the shaking of his shoulders. "He was my friend too," his youthful voice sounded gruffer and more laboured than usual. "Mustang was my boss, but it was Hughes who was kind to my brother and me."

Envy didn't have anything to say to that, their gaze involuntary flicking back towards the wall behind which Greed was probably dying for their crime.

It was the Pipsqueak's words that finally broke through to them.

"He loves you."

What?

The expression on their face must have been sufficient without words because Fullmetal just gave them a _look_ and continued on, "It didn't dawn on me until just now, but it makes sense. After Winry told us you were alive and had made a deal with Al, all Greed could think and talk about was your miserable ass." The Pipsqueak grit his teeth angrily, "Just so we're clear, I'm pretty sure _I_ despise you, but Greed loves you – God alone knows why – and he took on Mustang for you. And if _anyone_ can go against the Colonel's alchemy and live, it's got to be him. And yeah, I'd rather those two _wouldn't_ try to kill each other just when we have to deal with the Promised Day too, but we don't have the time to waste anymore. So stop struggling and help us finish all this."

"Why?" Envy asked before they could stop themselves. "Why aren't you trying to kill me? It was me who did it. I killed your friend."

The pissed off look in Edward's eyes became distant for a second before he recovered and exhaled. "It's not the first time for me," he shrugged. "Did you know that Scar murdered Winry's parents?" Envy shook their head. "Yeah, that's what he did after the war drove him crazy. I still remember them, you know? Their faces not so much, but I can still recall them coming over to visit my mom every now and then, and they'd bring Winry with them. They were good people. And Scar killed them." He took a deep breath. "I still hate him for that," he confessed. "I don't think Winry does, not anymore, but I'll never forgive him because it broke her heart when she had to face him and learn the truth. And you know what?" He was almost nose to nose with them now, all fired up and determined. "It doesn't matter. We have to save this country, and if I can do it working with Scar, I sure as Hell can do it working with _you_." He poked an automail finger in their face. "So you _will_ leave Greed do what he thinks he has to do, and you _will_ help me stop your bearded bastard of a father!"

* * *

Envy still reflected on Edward's words as they ran up one flight of stairs after another, racing towards the rooftops of Central High Command.

Was that why he lied? Was that why he confessed to something that could destroy him?

No, no, it couldn't be, no.

It couldn't.

The pain and the terror that kept gnawing at them were only made worse by the thought that the Pipsqueak had planted in their head.

He had to be wrong. It had to be some human thing where he saw something he didn't quite understand and gave it a pattern, a recognizable attribute to lessen the confusion of the unknown. Yes, that had to be it, right?

It had to be, because Homunculi couldn't love.

And even if they could, Envy thought as they remembered Lust and Gluttony, _Greed_ couldn't. The Dwarf had robbed him of that when he created him to be the living container of his own avarice, selfishness and hunger for power.

A nice, neat explanation that did _nothing_ to lessen the turmoil and the fear that assaulted their mind as they climbed up and up.

Nor did it offer a reason of why had Greed looked so remorseful and shaken back in Kanama, trying to be so achingly gentle to them that Envy had almost given in and had almost believed his words.

Or why he had felt the need to offer himself up to Mustang.

They knew humans could do things like that sometimes. They had seen it. They had taken advantage of it, many times over.

But Greed?

It couldn't be, it couldn't.

It mustn't.

Envy wasn't sure what they were more afraid of. That Greed might die facing the Flame Alchemist… or that he might survive and show them that he was capable of loving them.

There it was, that accursed word again. Envy almost snarled at themselves as they ran. They were fooling themselves.

There was no way. No way that the Universe would ever grant them something like that. They weren't made to be loved. They were made to covet the love others shared and then ruin them. To avenge their misery on the happiness of others.

And if they didn't rein their own anguish in, they could doom this whole endeavor with their weakness.

Because even as Greed had lunged at Mustang back in the Third Laboratory, Ling Yao and his two bodyguards had sensed another Homunculus approaching in the distance, heading towards the battle that raged in Central High Command, where Armstrong had turned against the rest of the generals and was fighting to take over the headquarters.

Edward had been absolutely certain that Armstrong was a trustworthy human, even as Pride and the rest of the human leaders who were subservient to Father claimed that the Ice Queen was on their side. And if her forces were defeated, the Dwarf could call on his loyal troops above and crush any attempt to halt the Promised Day. And the solar eclipse was getting closer and closer by the minute.

So Ling had not waited and had not wasted time. He had taken the old man and the girl with the automail arm, and the three of them had rushed after the distant presence of the Homunculus who was closing in on Armstrong's men atop the headquarters. The Pipsqueak had sent Envy after them, venturing down towards the lair on his own, with only the two chimeras to watch his back.

"Are you sure?" Envy had asked him, perplexed. This strategy didn't make much sense.

Edward had nodded, his eyes decisive and certain. "Al must already be there, or we would have saw him by now. And you said that my father has a plan too," He had rubbed the back of his blonde head, for a split second looking so much younger than the determined alchemist who was ready to march off to his death in order to save millions of lives and thwart a creature that wished to become a living god. "I… " He had hesitated, "I'm not sure what to think of him, to be honest. My memories of him keep telling me he's a no-good bastard, but… but I feel like I should trust him on this one. It doesn't make sense, right?"

"I don't know," Envy had lowered their head. "I never quite got all the intricacies of you humans," they had almost snorted when they heard how devoid of hatred their voice was. "Your brother trusts him." They had shrugged. "I don't know if that helps. But, for what's worth, your dad is a powerful alchemist. He's stronger than you. Stronger than Mustang or Kimblee, or Scar. He tied Pride into a pretzel back in Kanama, and he didn't even break a sweat. If a guy like that says he's got it covered, I'd say he's got it covered."

For some reason, Envy didn't reveal everything they had learned about Van Hohenheim. They didn't have the time, and it honestly didn't feel like it was any of their business to tell this boy that his father was actually older than this whole country and had given his blood to create the Dwarf in the Flask. This was between the Elrics and Hohenheim.

"I don't suppose he told you _what_ his plan was?" The gruff edge had barged back into the Pipsequeak's voice. Animosity was a familiar territory between them and it didn't really feel that bad by now.

"Nope," Envy shrugged. "I don't think he trusted me fully, for some reason."

Edward snorted and shoved at Envy with his automail arm before he turned away and strode towards the lair.

"Go and make sure that idiot prince doesn't get himself killed," he shouted with a wave of his hand without turning back.

And so off they went.

Envy didn't know which sibling the Xingese and the northern soldiers would have to face. Was it Gluttony, sent to devour them? Sloth to crush them before they could blink? Or Pride to use his shadows and turn them all into bloody, defeated chunks of meat?

They still felt a little weak after the ordeal in Kanama. Fighting Pride and being at Kimblee's mercy had drained them of a _lot_ of their power. The Philosopher Stone had healed them as much as it could, but if it was to come down to a fight, Envy didn't have a whole lot of souls left to sustain their life.

But when Envy came through the secret pathways they knew like the palm of their hand and ran into the balcony of a watchtower that boasted the green flag of Amestris on its top and overlooked the flat roof where the guys from Briggs had tried to cut the Central forces on the ground off the entrance to the headquarters, they looked down and saw the last brother they would have expected.

Wrath was standing there, sword in each hand and bodies strewn in his feet. He looked bad, his black hair disheveled, his face tired and covered in stubble, his eyepatch gone and his torn shirt splattered with blood… blood that likely wasn't his all his own.

The soldiers he had cut down were dead or dying, and the only ones still standing between the Führer and the rest of the Briggs soldiers who were desperately trying to hold off the loyalist soldiers were the Xingese. Gunfire was echoing from somewhere. Fu was dead too, lying in a pool of his own blood and Lan Fan was sobbing over his corpse, her automail looking half-dismantled, wires sticking out and oil leaking from busted hydraulics. The prince was standing tall and firm in front of his retainers, his curved sword pointed at Wrath. His left hand was pressed to his side, blood seeping between his fingers.

Envy jumped off the balcony and landed behind Wrath, allowing the full swing of their weight to announce their presence when the floor cracked beneath their small feet.

Wrath turned to look at them and lifted a surprised eyebrow.

"Envy?" He tilted his head sideways, but nothing about his posture betrayed aggressiveness. "I thought you died in the North."

Oh _fuck_.

He didn't know.

He must have gotten to Central just now and Pride had not had the chance to tell him.

Wrath still thought that Envy was on Father's side. This was a golden opportunity.

"Oh yeah?" They forced themselves to smirk snidely at him and put a nonchalant hand on their hip, " _I_ heard you died in the East."

Wrath smiled beneath his moustache. "Point taken," he looked back towards Ling and his henchmen, the Ouroboros sigil on his Ultimate Eye almost glinting with bloodthirst. "Shall we crush these fools so we can move on with the plan?"

Envy threw their head back and laughed contemptuously. It must have been convincing because Ling threw them an outraged look when they moved to stand next to their youngest brother. "Yeah, well, you know me," they wheedled, "Have I ever scoffed at the opportunity to kill a bunch of disgusting humans?"

Wrath's hands tightened around the swords he held. "Let's put an end to it, then."

"Yeah, let's," Envy agreed and, looking at the eyes of the Xingese, for the first time in their life they saw themselves as they had been before. Sadistic and bitter, lashing out to soothe a pain that could never be soothed.

The habit was so ingrained, carved so deep into their very being, that they had to consciously stop themselves. Even now.

The need to hurt someone was especially potent now, now when they had to fight the fear of losing Greed. For all they knew, he might have already been turned to ash. Or he might still be screaming somewhere below Central, the flames turning his immortality against him. Every single part of Envy _needed_ him, _needed_ to know whether he was still alive, but right now they had to keep fighting, to keep going. Not for the humans Wrath was intending to slaughter like pigs, no.

For Greed, who took on the fires that were meant for Envy. Suddenly they remembered how he had once claimed that he had wanted to take them with him, back when he left Father a century ago. For a second, they allowed themselves to imagine it, a life on the run with him, just the two of them with no sibling rivalries, no sinister plans, no disgusting tasks that Father needed done. Just Envy and Greed. Back then it had been impossible. And it likely wouldn't have been as nice and fulfilling as their imagination painted it.

But it still made their core ache softly.

Was it stupid, to keep fighting for something that never was and most likely would never be? Envy didn't know and, perhaps, didn't care.

The Ultimate Eye was a power to be reckoned with. It made Wrath one of the most dangerous creatures this world had to offer, and that was on top of his skill as a swordsman, his enhanced physique and the cold, eternal fury that swirled within his Stone. It was probably what had allowed him to beat Greed back in Dublith, even though Greed was older and more experienced, and swords should have been of no use against the Ultimate Shield. The uncanny ability to see your enemy's weaknesses and predict their moves almost to the point of precognition was unparalleled, really.

But even the Ultimate Eye could not see an attack where its owner did not suspect any danger.

With a single fluid move Envy grabbed one Wrath's wrists, immobilizing one of his swords and pushing the limb back, and then they jumped up, smashing their knee against the side of his head.

Wrath went down, completely blindsided by the attack. They crashed on top of him, and he grunted when their condensed weight hit his whole upper body.

And even so he was a fighter. Envy immediately felt an elegant shoe hitting their stomach and kicking them off. As they were thrown backwards, they twisted Wrath's wrist and forced him to drop his sword. One down, one to go.

Just as Envy fell on the blood-soaked roof, they saw Wrath jumping back on his feet and pointing his remaining sword in their direction. A bruise was starting to darken where Envy's knee had hit the side of his head, but the Ultimate Eye was focused on them now.

Until Ling didn't came out flying out of nowhere, his blade flashing like a lightning bolt at Wrath who moved and parried so swiftly that Envy's superhuman vision barely registered it. He's almost as fast as Sloth, they realized. Steel clashed against steel and Envy could even hear the prince growling in heartbroken rage.

Wrath nearly took Ling's head off when he answered the Xingese's attack with a swing of his own but the long-haired foreigner ducked and stepped out of the Führer's reach. Which allowed Envy to barrel down on him from behind, trying to tackle him. It didn't work.

His head snapped back to stare at them with the Ultimate Eye and before Envy could realize what was happening, they felt the tip of his sword pushing into the flesh between their shoulder and their chest, and they cried out in sudden pain. And then he twisted his body sideways so quickly that for a heartbeat it looked like he was almost at two places at once, and used his free hand to catch the throwing knife that Lan Fan had sent at him, still kneeling over her grandfather's corpse.

Envy stumbled back and hissed when they felt the steel blade moving out of the wound. The damage was repaired in a flash of red light and they decided that fighting the embodiment of Father's anger was maybe not a good idea. Ling was wounded, Lan Fan's automail was as good as broken, and Envy wasn't even half the fighter Wrath was.

"Hey, Wrath!" They shouted at him instead and he turned to look back at Envy, all the while he moved to keep both Ling and Lan Fan within his field of vision, the Ultimate Eye taking everyone's measure so he could kill them easier. "You realize what you're doing right now, right?"

"What are you rambling about?" His voice was disinterested as he kept circling around his three opponents. They were all getting closer and closer to the outer edge of the rooftop, below which lay the moat that encircled Central High Command.

"Did he promise you he'd spare her?" They asked him, point blank. "Or did you even ask at all?" _Do you even care?_ was the silent question hidden behind their words, and their thoughts fled back to Greed, remembering how he had stepped in front of Mustang's fire for their sake. Somehow they couldn't imagine Wrath taking on Father's ire for Mrs. Bradley.

"Ah, I see," Wrath said evenly. "Trying to distract me, are you, Envy? So your _allies_ here can attack me while I stutter about my wife? I think not. Do you take me for a human?"

And there was Envy's answer.

Envy looked at Ling, and they saw Wrath's eyes follow the movement. The prince lunged at Wrath just as Envy did. The Führer quickly tossed his weapon into the air, caught it with his left hand and shifted his weight to the right, meeting Ling with a hard elbow to the face while managing to slip under the slash of the Xingese sword. At the same time his left arm shot forward, slid between Envy's guard and lodged the thin sword into their throat, keeping the shapeshifting Homunculus at a safe distance.

They grabbed the blade, fighting the pain and feeling blood dripping down their chin as red lightning began crackling around the open wound while Wrath's sword was still inside their body.

It was at this moment when Envy's brother found himself face to face with Lan Fan.

Even his Ultimate Eye couldn't track three people who all moved at once from every direction.

A blade screeched out of a hidden mechanism inside her automail arm and she stuck it straight into Wrath's side, up through the ribs.

He grunted, obviously hurt, and Envy saw red blooming underneath his white shirt. His right arm moved faster than the eye could see, giving Lan Fan such a hard backhand slap that her neck snapped back and she staggered away from them.

That, however, left him open for Ling's retaliation and Envy could only watch, holding the sword in their throat in place, as the curved Xingese blade slashed across Wrath's face, biting between his forehead and his cheek, cutting right into the Ultimate Eye. Bright crimson liquid splattered everywhere and Wrath cried out in shock and pain.

And then Envy finally moved. They tore out Wrath's sword out of their throat, alchemical light surging around the wound and healing it, and they crashed their body into their brother's, using their weight to tackle him off the edge.

Unfortunately, this meant that they went down with him.

Envy heard Ling's voice shouting after them, but it was too late for him to do anything. The two Homunculi were already falling down, towards the murky waters of the moat.

A second before they hit the surface, Envy remembered that Wrath had held on to his sword, and just as they did, they felt the blade pushing into their body from below, scraping muscles and bone until it cut right into their spine. Their vision darkened with sudden agony and then they crashed into the water.

* * *

 _Sorry for the slight delay with this one. Had a busy week and writing was kind of difficult. Now I have a few days off, though, and I will actually try to finish this story before the end of next week. Hopefully even sooner. There isn't THAT much left, and I already have an ending I want to get to, and an epilogue written. So hopefully you all won't have to wait long to get to see how this AU centered around a ridiculously un-canon ship will end._

 _The confrontation with Wrath is not as tense and epic as the one in the show, and I'm okay with that (and I kind of hope you are too lol). Recreating the deaths of Fu and Buccaneer would be kind of pointless in an Envy POV since they don't really give a shit and arrived at the scene later, but feel free to fill in the emotional blanks. Since this is neither Wrath's nor Envy's, nor even Ling's culmination, it should work as we're gearing up towards the final fight._

 _See you next update, folks!_


	21. Chapter 21

Greed's bones jolted painfully when Pride tossed his body on the cold floor. As he scrambled to get up, he heard Mustang and Hawkeye being deposited in much the same manner. Despite the shadows that circled around him and watched his every move, black tendrils slithering across the surface of the walls and the ceiling, and sharp claws on the ready to tear him to shreds, Greed was able to notice a few important things about this chamber.

For starters, they were not alone here.

One of the scientists who were in on the big plan was here, accompanied by a bunch of grizzled, dead-eyed soldiers Greed had not seen before. And would you look at that, they had Scar completely encircled, swords at his neck and chest. Greed hadn't seen _that_ charming guy ever since he, Envy and Ed escaped from Gluttony's stomach, nor had he any idea how or why the Ishvalan had gotten himself into this mess… but it probably wouldn't end well for him.

The scientist who looked like he was in charge of this shindig was an ugly old bastard, grinning up at Pride with a wide smile that glinted a little in the dark thanks to a shiny golden tooth. Even in Greed's opinion it looked a little tacky. He was crouching on the floor, and was just finishing drawing a big, complicated-looking transmutation circle with a piece of chalk.

"Ah," the guy nearly crooned when Pride's fanged maws and glowing eyes turned to scrutinize him. "Well done, Homunculus. It's nearly time." He groaned as he got up, his joints looking weak and stiff, and he walked to where Pride's shadows were keeping Mustang subdued and bent to look down at the Flame Alchemist. "Colonel Mustang," he reached and grabbed the guy's chin in his hand, turning his face up and looking him over almost as if he was a specimen to be dissected. "You managed to sow quite the chaos for our forces above, but the time has finally come. Are you ready to do your part?"

"Go to Hell," Mustang spat at him, still looking pissed.

Greed couldn't help but laugh bitterly. That's what you get for not dying back at the Third Laboratory, foolish alchemist.

Pride hissed at him and tightened his shadowy hold on his arms and torso as the doctor with the golden tooth stood up and stalked closer to Greed. When he got near, Greed saw that there was something wrong with his eyes, each iris crooked outwards and giving him an even more grotesque of an appearance. His lips curled in disgust as he watched the human.

"You're one of _them_ , aren't you?" The scientist tilted his head sideways like a confused dog. "Why do you have to be restrained so? Did you do something to displease _Him_?"

 _You're asking too many questions, little man,_ Pride's echoing voice warned him from at least five different maws that floated in the black air, but the guy turned right to the vessel, the child-like form of Selim Bradley standing with its little arms crossed, and leaning its back against the wall near the entrance. Hundreds of eyes watched them, the shadows blooming and twisting slowly against the stony surface behind him. The expression on the vessel's face somehow seemed older and more cruel than a child had a right to be and its clothes looked torn and dirty, covered in dried blood and grime. He must have gotten straight to Central after Kanama, Greed thought idly.

"O-of course," the creepy scientist nodded at Pride's vessel. "We should get on with it. Yes."

He turned back to Mustang and made a gesture at the soldiers with the slack faces. A couple of them moved quickly and fluidly away from Scar, surrounding Hawkeye. A thin sword, the same kind as the ones Wrath used, was suddenly pressed against the marksman's throat. Greed could only watch as Mustang let out a low growl and visibly tried to move and get back on his feet, but he was no match for the hold Pride had on him.

 _You know what you're supposed to do, right?_ One of Pride's fanged mouths materialized and grinned next to the Flame Alchemist's face. _You have to perform human transmutation for us, so you'd open the Gate. Once you're done, Father can begin the ritual. So hurry up, Colonel Mustang, everyone's waiting on you._

"Go to Hell," Mustang repeated, gritting his teeth. "If you think I'm about to play your twisted games, you're delusionial."

"Unfortunately, we don't have the time to convince you with rhetorics, Colonel," the doctor declared and even before he gave the nod to the guy who had Hawkeye, Greed knew what was about to happen.

It was that first moment of silence that got him.

For a heartbeat Hawkeye stood very still, forced down on her knees just a few feet away from Mustang.

And then the blood gushed out of her slit throat and when the soldier let go of her body, she lurched forward and fell before Mustang.

Even after their fight, even after the fire and the horrible pain, Greed couldn't help but cringe at the sound the Flame Alchemist made when he saw what they did to his woman. He began to trash and yell so violently that Pride had to pretty much wrap his whole upper body in shadows to keep him from moving.

That's why the old man was gonna win, Greed realized. He averted his eyes from the screaming Mustang and looked at the scientist with the golden tooth. When you had something – _anything –_ to lose, guys like that took it from you without even blinking. Funny. Greed wasn't sure if he could pinpoint the moment when he had stopped being like them. He wondered where Envy was, and hoped that they had had the sense to run as far away from Central as possible. This one didn't have a happy ending in sight, and Greed was more or less fine with dying as long as he knew Envy was safe. Sadly, he didn't think that was the case.

"Perform the human transmutation, Mustang," the doctor commanded, his gleeful voice somehow managing to carry over the shouts and the promises of murder coming out of Mustang's mouth. "Choose anyone you like. The Ishvalan should do fine, or even one of my men." None of the soldiers even reacted. "Do it, and the Lieutenant's life may yet be preserved." Greed glanced at her and saw that she was still holding on, her breaths shallow and irregular, her life leaking out between the fingers of the hand she had pressed to the mortal wound.

"Colonel," Hawkeye's voice was getting weak, but Greed could hear her all the same. "Roy… Don't. Don't do it, Roy," she pleaded. "Don't give them what they want."

 _But you will do it, won't you, Mustang?_ Pride purred in the Flame Alchemist's ear. Mustang's face was so twisted by rage and terror that Greed couldn't recognize the man who had incinerated an immortal army of monsters. _The good doctor here has a Philosopher's Stone with him,_ as if to confirm Pride's words the guy reached into his lab coat and pulled out a small flask. The red liquid inside glinted in the underground daekness. _Once you open the Gate, he can save Hawkeye's life. But you have to make a choice, and you have to do it NOW._

" _No._ "

And just as Mustang spoke that single word, _something_ that Greed couldn't really identify snagged the doctor into the air and in a flash had him dragged into the opening of the service tunnel above before the human could even screech in fear. A few of Pride's eyes even blinked in surprise as the flask with the liquid Stone dropped on the floor and rolled towards Greed's feet.

What the…?

Before Greed could process it, a bunch of people jumped down from the hole that the scientist had disappeared into. No, not people. _Chimeras._

Greed recognized Darius and Heinkel, and there was another guy with them, this one made in the form of a hulking mixture of man and warthog. The three chimeras rushed at the dead-eyed soldiers, making good use of the confusion. Along with the chimeras Greed saw a little Xingese girl who immediately threw a bunch of small throwing knifes at the wall next to Pride's vessel. The blades formed a perfect circle, and then she repeated the action, creating another circle at her feet and before Greed could realize what was happening, she triggered a transmutation and the round chamber was suddenly aglow with ringing energy.

The gears inside Greed's mind finally clicked together – the newcomers must have been the ones in Envy's group in the North – just as the wall next to Selim Bradley exploded and all the shadows screamed and twitched. Which was enough to free both Greed and Mustang for a second.

Neither of them needed more than that.

As Greed covered his body with the carbon armor of the Ultimate Shield, Mustang ran towards Hawkeye and took her in his arms.

"Lieutenant!" he cried out. "Lieutenant, stay with me! Do you hear me? _Lieutenant?! Riza!_ "

He was so absorbed in her that he never noticed one of the soldiers who came at him from behind and lifted his sword, intending to cut them both down. Not very smart, considering that Mustang was needed for the old man's plan, but these guys seemed to be nothing but fleshy drones, their minds wiped of any form of individual thought.

Greed's armored punch came at the soldier so hard that he heard the air whipping around his arm as he slammed his fist into the human's face. The guy staggered back, spitting blood and broken teeth and Greed followed him, batting his sword away with an arm covered in the Ultimate Shield and then smashing his skull into the soldier's. He heard bones cracking under the assault of the carbon armor and the useless human dropped like a ton of bricks.

He briefly looked around and saw Scar effortlessly taking down another of the blank-faced soldiers, and he could hear the chimeras making a commotion somewhere behind. The little girl was running all around the room, looking panicked. What the _fuck_ did she think she was doing?

His elbow shot out almost on its own accord in order to block a sword swing that came at him from the sides and when he twirled around to make short work of the dumbass who had attacked him, Greed finally saw what she was chasing.

The Philosopher's Stone.

She was so focused on it that she never noticed the shadowy tendril that tripped her up, sending her crashing down into the hard, stony floor.

 _You'll regret attacking me, you little Xingese rat_ , Pride promised her, malice dripping from his voice. A few black blades coiled up from the ground like serpents, waiting for the kid to get back on her feet so the bastard could take his sweet time killing her.

But Pride never even registered Greed who vaulted over the girl and let the shadows strike uselessly against the Ultimate Shield. Pride's immaterial maws roared and sputtered in outrage.

"Sorry, big guy," Greed sneered at Pride even as he felt the shadows tighten around his throat and torso, almost like he was trying to strangle him. "No fun for you. Hey, kiddo," he reached with his pointy shoe and kicked the flask with the Stone back towards the Xingese girl, grunting as Pride's claws scraped around the Ultimate Shield. "Go and help out the idiot and his girl. Can't miss'em. I'll hold off Mr. Black, Angry and Stupid here."

"But you're.. you're…" she mumbled confusedly behind him. "You're a monster too. Or are you on our side, like Envy?"

"What the fuck does it look like?!" Greed shouted irritably at her as he slashed at Pride's black tentacles and jumped into the mass of swirling, furious shadows that radiated cold and hatred.

 _Why won't you just give up, damn you?!_ Pride hissed at him from the blackness that engulfed him and desperately began clawing at his carbon armor. _Why do you have to betray Father every time you get a fucking chance?!_

"Cause I hate him with everything I got," Greed answered honestly and for a moment it looked like he had managed to push through the cloud of roiling shadows because suddenly he glimpsed Pride's vessel within the reach of his armored claws.

For a split second the smooth, childish face of Selim Bradley registered something that might have passed for fright, but then the shadows struck Greed again, unstoppable and unrelenting. A black avalanche of claws, fangs and glowing eyes washed over him and slammed him on the floor.

 _Hate?_ Pride tsked with an invisible tongue. _Such a strong word. And to think he only considers you a failure. He gave you another chance after we caught you in Dublith, but_ I _reckon we're past that now, eh, Greed?_ Pride laughed as his shadowy blades and claws struck at him again and again, and he could feel his Shield straining to keep up after the fiery bath Mustang had given him back in the Laboratory.

When he heard the roar of the fire barreling down on the writhing mass of shadows, Greed couldn't stop himself from wincing, but it was Pride who screamed.

Suddenly the shadows were gone and Greed could breathe again.

He got up as quickly as he was able and looked back to see Mustang standing tall, the Xingese girl kneeling over Hawkeye who looked much better. Well, Greed supposed it was all relative considering she was covered in her own blood and everything, but she didn't appear to be dying anymore. The soldiers seemed to be all dead, and Greed could hear the doctor struggling and moaning in fear somewhere in the tunnel above the ceiling.

Greed and Mustang locked eyes, the Homunculus taking big gulps of air and the alchemist clenching his jaw, his arm outstretched and his fingers once more ready to snap.

Both of them heard the footsteps and they turned to the noise at the same time.

Greed felt his stomach doing a painful flip when he saw who it was.

Wrath looked battered, bloodied and… soaked, weirdly enough, but it was Envy who caught almost all of Greed's attention.

His fucking shitstain of a little brother had them impaled on his sword as he dragged their petite form along. Red lightning was constantly sizzling around the wound, but the blade was keeping it from closing itself, forcing Envy's Stone to keep spending energy it couldn't afford to waste.

Why weren't they trying to fight him off? What was wrong? Greed stared at Envy's arms and legs, dangling limp and weak almost as if they weren't able to… use… them…

And then he understood, snarling in fury at Wrath.

The bastard had cut into Envy's spine, paralyzing them and using the sword to keep them in such a state.

Wrath stopped and looked calmly at all of them, as if his injuries and the immobilized Homunculus impaled on his sword were nothing but a minor nuisance.

With one smooth movement he lifted a leg and kicked Envy off his blade, sending them stumbling right into Greed's arms. Their pretty little body shuddered as it was finally allowed to heal itself and they looked up at Greed.

"You're alive," Envy whispered, sounding almost bewildered at the fact.

"Yeah, sweet cheeks," Greed forced himself to smile at them as he moved back, never letting Wrath out of his sight. "Still here, I guess."

"I thought he burned you to ash."

"Yeah, well, when everything's done here, we might go live someplace nice and cool for a few years, what do you say?" Greed joked, wondering when exactly was Wrath going to attack.

Envy mumbled something incoherent and tried to shakily stand up on their restored legs.

"Pathetic," Wrath finally said. "And here I thought that it was the humans who had the weakling hearts. But Colonel Mustang proved me wrong. We assumed you would do anything, included human transmutation, to save her," the Führer looked at Mustang, who was holding Hawkeye up in a way that wasn't terribly different from how Greed held on to Envy.

"There was a time when I might have," Mustang said. "But I'm done being reckless. I have people who would keep me on the right track."

Wrath chuckled softly. "To think we consider you all pathetic creatures who could never learn a lesson properly." Then his eye flashed at the Flame Alchemist. "That's one more reason why I can't stand you humans," he bit out, suddenly angry. "It infuriates me when I can't predict how you'll behave."

Just then the air behind Greed and Envy moved, as if something flew past them. They both turned madly around, only to hear a hoarse yelp of pain and see blood gushing from the hole in the ceiling where the scientist with the golden tooth had been carried to.

Another chimera, this one some kind of a large toad or something, crashed down on the floor. The rest of his buddies looked startled and surprised, but what scared Greed were the shadows that dragged the doctor out of the hole, holding him securely in a cocoon of blackness.

Pride.

And then Wrath moved, faster than any human could ever dream to be. He grabbed a second sword from the floor mid-lunge just as Mustang sent out a blast of flames at him, but the Führer dodged them easily, letting the fire destroy the entrance behind him, and before anyone could blink he was already upon Mustang who barely had the time to shove Hawkeye away.

It was over as quick as it started.

Mustang was on his back, squirming as pain as Wrath had his hands pinned to the floor with his swords.

"Colonel!" Hawkeye immediately moved to aid him, but Darius held her back.

Greed considered jumping at Wrath from behind – seemed like the best chance to take this fucker out once and for all but before he could act, Pride's shadows started slithering on the floor around Mustang, forming a…

"He's making a transmutation circle," Envy gasped, shocked.

"Well, Colonel Mustang," Pride's vessel snickered as it moved towards the fallen alchemist, still holding the doctor up in the air with the rest of his shadows. "Looks like you'll be our fifth after all."

"That's right," Wrath cruelly twisted the handle of one of his swords, making Mustang cry out. "Our last human sacrifice." And just as he said it, alchemical energy crackled around the edges of the black circle and the underground chamber was lit by a blinding glow.

Greed remembered this sight well. He had stepped inside a circle like that once, after all.

"I really hoped we wouldn't have to resort to this," Pride said coldly. "But there is no choice. We've run out of time."

Shit.

Did that mean that the eclipse had began. Damn. If only they had wasted ten more minutes. Or if he had managed to take Mustang out back in the Laboratory.

"They're forcing the portal open for him," Envy said next to Greed, sounding almost as if they were talking to themselves.

"Yes," Wrath didn't even turn to look at them, still standing over Mustang as blue energy sizzled and swirled around him. "Pride just assimilated an alchemist who knew the correct formula." Greed's eyes looked up and he saw the gold-toothed doctor twitching in Pride's grasp.

"Step away, Wrath," Pride ordered calmly. "I have him secure."

The Führer nodded and took his swords out of Mustang's palms, stepping over the Flame Alchemist's prone body as the circle began to pulse and the crackling energy turned into a roaring gale.

"Colonel! NO!" Hawkeye screamed from somewhere near, but the light was so bright that Greed could barely see anything anymore.

"I wonder…" Wrath hesitated as he looked down at Mustang. "What will be taken from you?"

Greed glimpsed the Eye opening underneath the screaming Mustang, and then the light blinded him fully for a moment and when he could see normally again, the Flame Alchemist and Pride were gone.

Something hit the floor with a wet, fleshy thud. Greed looked down and swore under his breath. He heard one of the chimeras retching somewhere in the back.

"The transmutation is complete." Wrath sounded oddly pleased. Or maybe it wasn't odd at all.

The scientist was no longer a scientist. Or a human, really. He had been turned into what Greed could only describe as a slab of pulsating… meat. He could still see the golden tooth inside his drooling, gaping mouth.

Worst of all, the guy was still alive. If you could call it living.

"C-colonel?" Hawkeye's voice sounded lost and terrified.

"Oh, Mustang is still alive," Wrath shrugged. "Right about now he's joining my father and the rest of the sacrifices. Although I can't vouch for his physical well-being. Now then," he looked sharply at their ragged group. "What about you?" He lifted one sword, still dripping with Mustang's blood, up. "Who among you has the courage to take me on? You all can see I'm wounded," Greed measured him up with his gaze, and indeed, the one-eyed runt looked to be in bad shape. Though only a fool would let that cloud his judgement. Greed had learned his lesson the hard way. Wrath was not easy to kill. "So who will it be? Who will try to claim the honor of vanquishing the Führer of Amestris? The chimeras? The outsider? Mustang's bitch? My treacherous siblings?" He smirked. "Or would you all like to come at me at once?"

"Wait," the Xingese girl whispered and they all turned to her. "Something's not right…" What was she on about? "Their leader… I can feel him. He's… he's just below us. Just below _him_ ," she nodded at where Wrath stood with his weapons ready.

"So _that's_ the center," Scar's eyes narrowed. "Well then…"

And before anyone could even blink, the Ishvalan moved, quick as a desert viper. Greed still remembered the fight in the lair after he and Envy escaped from the False Gate. Scar had nearly leveled it, and Father hadn't been able to even stop his access to alchemy.

Alchemical energy blazed around Scar's right arm and when he pressed it to the floor, the explosion shook the whole chamber. The ground collapsed with a deafening crash and Greed lost his balance and the stones gave out under his feet. He tried to grab on to Envy, to make sure they were okay, but it was no use, both of them were falling down, down into the blackness where Father awaited to become a living god.

* * *

 _I'm a little pissed off at myself here. I THOUGHT that I would be able to wrap up the climax in, like, two chapters (this one + one more), but FMA's climax really is a tough beast to tackle and I end up tackling more of it than I originally intended (for example, in my mind this chapter would have included a confrontation in Father's throne room as he opened the portal and stuff, but this would have made it insanely long as this is not something that I want to half-ass). So it might be a bit more than two chapters and an epilogue before we're through. I'll try to contain it to two more (aside from this) plus the epilogue, but we'll see. At least Envy and Greed are at the same physical place now, that should make it easier?_

 _So, see you next time, maybe?_


	22. Chapter 22

**Father's lair beneath Central,**

 **roughly 175 years ago**

Greed whistled a tune he had heard in one of Hovenstad's less reputable drinking establishments not even two weeks ago during his latest task. His gait had a light spring to it as he made his way through the underground tunnels.

Life was good.

All he had to do was go in, report, endure a bit of tedious lecturing from ole' Pops, and then he could go back to the vibrant world above. Greed always volunteered for the missions that took him away from the lair. Most of the time it worked like a charm; Pride was sort of essential for their operation and Father preferred to keep him around in Central, and Lust despised the silly little mortals so she'd only deal with humans if their dad specifically ordered her to do so.

As far as Greed could tell, she had actually been relieved when the old man made him. It meant less time spent on the surface for her, if nothing else.

Greed could never understand his older sister.

That world above them was everything this dark lair wasn't. It was full of noise and smells, things to see and try. Full of pleasures and opportunities.

Full of life.

Full of so much life, that it sometimes could make Greed forget how empty he felt when he was around his dad. The novelty of it wore out quickly, sure, but there was always _more_. Greed liked that word. _More_. More, more, give me more! It tasted almost sweet on his tongue. No girl he had ever fucked had tasted as sweet as the promise for more, for more tomorrows, for more fun, for more power, for more life.

He chuckled quietly at himself, as he walked merrily in the dark.

Lust and Pride, even the old man… they didn't know what they were missing on.

And that was just fine.

He didn't mind keeping it _all_ for himself, and if his family wanted to hide beneath the earth instead, they were welcome to it.

Greed was so absorbed in himself and his thoughts that he barely saw the cloud of black shadows that stormed into the underground hallway, writhing on the stony walls and hitting impossible angles and invisible surfaces in ways that made your eyes hurt.

 _Out of my way, Greed,_ Pride growled with his immaterial voice instead of offering a proper greeting but that was alright. Pride was a mean bastard, and Greed had long since given up on him ever growing good manners. Curious, though, what had gotten him all fired up? Greed pondered it for all of a second as he sidestepped the mass of angry shadows and glowing eyes, and he grinned.

"What's up, big guy?" He asked. "Don't recall seeing you this mad ever since that diplomat guy found a peaceful resolution for that little war of yours in the West a few years ago."

 _Ugh, don't remind me,_ a few of Pride's eyes turned to Greed and narrowed at him. _It's the new… thing Father made. Can't stand its bawling._

Greed managed to go as far as nod at Pride's words before his brain kicked in and he digested what he had just heard.

New thing?

That sounded interesting.

"Say," he began slowly, "mind explaining what you're actually talking about? It's not like I just got back from my mission and you know me, always starving for news," he put his thumbs into the new, richly-decorated belt he had gotten in Hovenstad and he gave Pride a sharp smile full of shark fangs. " _What_ new thing?"

 _Everything was so much better before Father decided to make more Homunculi,_ Pride lamented, _It was me and him, and we were doing just fine before you whelps came along. You can't imagine how aggravating it is to put up with you all._

"Sorry for offending you with my existence," Greed deadpanned and could almost _see_ the joke flying over Pride's head. Or rather, the lump of swirling shadows that might have passed for his head if you squinted, tilted your head to the left and ignored the extra mouths and the tens of eyes that moved in the black.

 _Whatever,_ Pride's echoing voice gave the impression of a shrug. _If you want to know_ that _badly, Father made a new sibling for us a few days ago. It has not… adjusted yet._

Wait.

Wait, wait, wait, wait!

This was _huge_!

Greed's curiosity and imagination went crazy inside his head. A new sibling? This was so full of possibilities that he nearly giggled with anticipation. He had never had a new sibling. Ever since the old man put him together, all he had had were Pride and Lust, and they had been created before him. To get a new one… Greed did not know what to expect, what to do, what to say.

It felt wonderful. New experiences were all the sweeter.

"What's it called?" He asked before he could stop himself. "No, wait, actually, is it a boy or a girl? What does he… or she, I guess… look like? What about its powers? An…"

Pride just growled again and before Greed could blink the shadows were leaving in his opposite direction.

"Well, that was odd," he said to himself as he rubbed the back of his head.

* * *

He heard his new sibling's voice before he saw them.

To be more specific, he heard them crying – _loudly –_ and Lust trying to calm them down as he walked towards the throne room.

The noises were coming from a small alcove you could find if you turned right and went into the opening of an old sewer that was older than the lair itself – probably a remnant of some lost civilization that had been around before Amestris – and Greed didn't even hesitate following them. Father could wait, this was way more intriguing.

It didn't sound as if Lust's efforts were very successful.

Perhaps it was her approach?

" _Would you stop already?_ " Her voice echoed from somewhere deeper into the tunnel. It was always difficult to attach an emotion to her cold personality whenever she talked to you, but this time she seemed mildly annoyed. " _Crying won't solve a thing. You must learn to control yourself, or else Father will just get rid of you._ "

" _I can't! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!_ " Greed's breath quickened. This must have been the new one! He couldn't really assign a gender to this voice; it could have belonged to an effeminate male, or to a female with a scratchy timbre. It was difficult to tell, and it fluctuated weirdly as Greed's sibling spoke. But what Greed _could_ discern was that the new one sounded deeply upset.

He frowned and moved faster through the darkness and the sounds of anguished sobbing.

When he finally found Lust and the new one, he wasn't prepared and couldn't stop himself from stopping in his tracks and simply _staring._

Lust was standing over… something that Greed was just incapable of describing.

It was changing its form constantly, facial features and body parts moving fluidly across its body. Red lighting was crackling all around, and for a second Greed thought that if an unsuspecting human walked in on this, he would probably keel over dead of shock and terror. The new one's skin couldn't keep a color either, one second it seemed completely normal – if a little pale – the other, it turned into a scaly green hide. Limbs grew and withered across the new one's frame, and it seemed to have trouble narrowing it down to two arms and two legs. Its whole body was shaking as it cried his heart out, keeping its (actual?) face hidden behind a bunch of clawed hands and apologizing over and over to Lust who stood above it with her arms crossed, looking stern and lovely like an ancient statue brought back to life. The contrast between her beauty and the new one's ugliness was staggering.

And also, utterly fascinating.

"Well, well, well," he drawled, his voice making Lust turn and raise her eyebrows ever so slightly in what could have been either a greeting or a sign of surprise. Greed wasn't sure which, and he wasn't about to lose sleep wondering about it. "What _do_ we have here?"

"When did you get back?" Lust asked him. "How did it go up north?"

"It was great, you should have come," Greed joked as he didn't even pretend to look at his sister. His gaze was pinned to the ever-changing body of the new one. He slowly moved closer and crouched before it, arcs of red light twisting in the chilly air, the glow reflected in the jewels that adorned the many rings Greed had taken to wearing. He could spot a terrified purple eye looking up at him from between the fingers of one of the multiple hands that covered its face. The new one had stopped crying for now, though Greed wasn't sure if it was due to it managing to calm down or suddenly getting fearful. "So…" He hesitated before he finally shot a glance at Lust, "What's all this, then?"

"Father decided to create a new Homunculus," Lust rolled her eyes. "The results are not… very impressive so far," she shrugged and Greed heard the new one taking a deep breath, as if it was trying not to burst into tears again. "Pride stormed out a little while ago, and I'm beginning to see the appeal of it too."

"Hrmmm," Greed looked back at the new one. "Yeah, I ran into him on my way in," he said distractedly. "Why don't you go and do… whatever you do to relax? I want to meet the new one on my own."

"Greed," Lust's voice held an edge of warning. His sister was older and thus of a higher rank. She was much more patient and forgiving than Pride, but one had to be a fool to antagonize her. "This has better not be another one of your hare-brained schemes. _It,_ " she threw a bored look at their trembling sibling in her feet, "has not gotten used to things yet. I don't want to find out you've put some stupid notion into its head later."

"Yeah, yeah, no worries, Lusty," Greed raised a placating hand, certain that the Ultimate Shield was superior to the Ultimate Spear. "You won't find out, I promise. I'm kidding!" He protested when she scowled at him. "Look, _you_ don't want to be here, _I_ don't want you here, and the little one sounded like it doesn't want you around too. So just go away and _everyone wins,_ " he grinned at her and watched as she rolled her eyes again, let out a long-suffering sigh and walked off into the darkness.

"Now!" Greed clasped his hands excitedly when Lust was gone. His sibling winced at the sharp sound. "Let's introduce ourselves. I'm Greed." He pressed a hand to his chest as he spoke, indicating himself in case the new one was a bit slow, and showing off his Ouroboros sigil at the same time. "I want to own everything this world has to offer, I'm going to be in charge one day, and I'm your big brother." He smiled down at the new one, his eyes shining in the dark. "Well? What about you?"

"I," the new one hiccuped and hesitated, before they gulped and whispered, face still hidden from him, "Father said I'm Envy."

Slowly, they lowered their hands and revealed themselves fully.

" _Fuck!_ " Greed's eyebrows shot up to his hairline as he saw Envy's face for the first time. "You're _hideous!_ "

It was the look in Envy's gaze that told him he'd struck a nerve, because it simply wasn't possible to get an actual expression from that shifting mess of pulsating facial features. One of Envy's eyes had at least four or five irises, and each one looked hurt and insulted beyond belief. Furious.

Greed had never seen anything like Envy before. And he was damn sure he'd never see anything like Envy ever again.

Unique. They were unique. Sure, ugly as sin, but unique all the same. And unique trumped pretty each and every time for Greed. You could find pretty everywhere; it was almost mundane. Unique, though, to own something nobody else could even imagine…

And then, before his very eyes, the red lightning that sizzled all around their half-fluid body, washed over their form and Greed could see the changes as it made its way.

Green hide was replaced by smooth, pale skin. The writhing, malformed limbs were transformed into a set of fine, slender arms and legs. Envy threw their head back and hissed as if they were in pain, and when they lowered it down again, their face was youthful and beautiful, with a small, pouting mouth and a delicate nose. Long, black hair fell almost to their waist. The only thing that had remained the same were their eyes; they were big and looked mostly normal – if one ignored the violet color of their irises – but they regarded him with the same look of hurt and anger he had seen just moments ago.

"I'm Envy," they repeated themselves, this time boldly and through clenched teeth, and even their voice seemed to have stabilized somewhat, although it retained that wondrous androgynous edge it had had before, "and I _hate_ you."

All Greed could do was grin victoriously.

* * *

 **Father's lair beneath Central,**

 **now**

So that's how one became a god, eh? Create a country, pull its strings ever since its inception, orchestrate a few dozen wars and hundreds of massacres over the centuries because life and death meant _power_ , then dig up an enormous alchemical circle to keep all that energy contained and focused, bide your time, gather a bunch of people who had seen the Gate of Truth and then use them to open a portal to the heavens at the exact moment when the celestial bodies aligned perfectly to match your blasphemy.

Easy, right?

All Greed and Envy could do was watch, restrained by Pride and Gluttony, as Father – who by now was no longer the bearded, long-haired old man Greed has known throughout his entire existence, instead having turned into what could only be described as a human-shaped black hole – sat on his throne and triggered the transmutation.

The human sacrifices started wriggling and screaming in fright on the ground. Ed and his armor suit of a little brother, a guy who looked like he could easily win a contest for a doppelganger of the old man and who Greed assumed was the Elrics' dad that Envy had mentioned before, that loud woman who had kicked his ass back in Dublith... and Mustang, Mustang who had lost his sight when Pride forced him through the Gate and he saw the Truth.

Greed saw the Eye appearing on each of their bodies, as the storm of energy Father unleashed howled through the dark lair, red light flickering and crackling all around. The air suddenly felt so absurdly heavy that he cried out at the pain that gripped his head and lungs, but he couldn't hear his own voice over the roar of the transmutation. Greed turned to look at Envy, his neck straining against the shadowy chains Pride held him with. Gluttony had them in his grasp as securely as he was able while they thrashed around, trying to break free; Greed wasn't sure which one of the two looked more afraid.

Greed's vision blacked out just as the old man began cackling madly on his throne.

He thought he could hear millions of voices at once, faint, echoing and terrified as the whole of Amestris died, to serve as the power conduit between Father and the unearthly force he was going to absorb. The nationwide circle had served its purpose, as had all the wars that had turned this country into what it was today.

Failure had a bitter taste.

A nightmarish picture floated into his mind as he shouted out into the complete darkness. A black, cyclopean creature rose from the vortex that had swallowed Amestris. It was enormous, taller than any mountain Greed had seen, turning its deafening rage towards the eclipse. It reached a colossal hand towards the moon and the sun behind it, pushing through the sky as dark clouds swirled around its giant fingers.

And then the Eye, the _real_ Eye – not the false one inside Gluttony's belly, or the afterimages that had flashed across the bodies of the sacrifices – opened where the shadow of the moon was and stared down at the gigantic monstrosity that was rising towards it, thundering laughter booming through the heavens.

When Greed could finally see again, he was shaking, huddled into himself like a frightened child.

He could hear Envy sobbing quietly somewhere next to him and he tried to move, to reach them, to help them.

Funny, though, out of everyone in Father's throne room, it was Gluttony who spoke first.

"Father?" He whimpered, hesitant and confused. "Are you a god now?"

* * *

 **Father's lair beneath Central,**

 **about two years after Envy's creation**

Greed was in the process of finishing up a nice bottle of fine, dark rum, his feet plopped on the table as he was trying to just relax and enjoy the quiet.

Pride was doing something that required him to be away from lair tonight, Lust was off to the East to spark yet another revolt, Father had retreated into his throne room days ago to plot and think, and Envy was nowhere to be seen all day.

Which meant that Greed could just kick back, take a breather and not deal with anyone or anything. He was planning another long trip away from Central. Lust and Father had devised a network of spies all across Amestris, to serve as the Homunculi's eyes and ears, so once he boarded the stagecoach that would take him out of Central, he could still receive orders and do his job. He vaguely wondered where to go this time. Perhaps the South. There hadn't been any major conflicts there for a while now, so he had an excuse. With a little luck, he might be gone from the lair until the autumn came.

So when his door was suddenly crashed open, he almost jumped out of his skin and turned to look at the intruder.

Envy.

And they were _livid._

"I hate them!" Envy cried out, little fists clenching so tight that their knuckles had turned white. "I hate them! I hate them! I hate them! I hate them! I hate them! I HATE THEM!"

Greed stood up, just to get a better view.

Envy was a sight to behold when they were angry. For some time now, Greed had started checking out his youngest sibling more and more, and he had caught himself thinking thoughts that weren't entirely… platonic.

It had been odd at first. Not to feel attracted to someone, _that_ was old news to Greed who had indulged his desires with so many human girls and women that he had long ago lost count.

But to feel attracted to another Homunculus? That was… strange and new.

He had fought it at first. He had seen Envy before they had made the body that was standing in Greed's chambers now. Hell, they had created that form as he watched! Envy was the ugliest creature that had ever walked this earth. He shouldn't want a monster that didn't even look human.

Then again, sex wasn't about beauty, wasn't it? It _helped_ , sure, but when it came down to it, it wasn't necessary. Greed didn't mind beauty, but what attracted him, what really got him going, was uniqueness. The thought of owning someone unique, of having someone unique in his bed, at his mercy, got him harder than the Ultimate Shield.

Perhaps that was why his desires had focused on a Homunculus like Envy instead of, say, Lust. Lust was beautiful, but Greed had seen and fucked countless women like her. And her cold personality was plain boring. Where Lust was ice, Envy was flame, enticing and dangerous. Where she was nothing but beauty, they were ugliness disguised and transformed until it had transcended beyond understanding.

Greed wanted Envy. He wanted them like he wanted his possessions, to be his property for all eternity.

No way.

There's no way that there's no way.

He didn't notice the blood until Envy began breaking things, shrieking in fury.

"Whoa, whoa!" He frowned and moved towards them just as they smashed a whole shelf full of old, rare wines. "Hold on the fire, freakshow! You're smashing the good stuff!"

Envy looked at him as if they had just realized he was there.

Then they grabbed one of the bottles that had survived the assault, stared at it for a second and they threw it right at Greed.

"Hey!" He yelled when the glass shattered against his shoulder and his clothes were soaked in wine.

"Disgusting!" Envy shouted, so mad that they seemed, well, _mad._ "They're disgusting and I hate them, and I hate you too!"

"Okay, that's enough," Greed grit his teeth, his patience wearing thin. He didn't have the habit of allowing his possessions to behave like that. He purposefully walked to Envy and he grabbed their delicate wrists in his hands. Up close, he saw that they were covered in blood, and if he was to judge from the splatter, it hadn't come from an injury Envy had sustained. Someone had died tonight, and it probably hadn't been pretty. "What's going on?"

" _I hate them,_ " Envy hissed in response, as if _that_ was any help.

"Who?" He pressed, forcing Envy to step back until he had them up against a wall. "Who do you hate so much that you felt like coming here and breaking all _my_ things?"

Envy looked him right in the eyes then, and for a moment he thought he saw something more than their fiery anger, but it was gone before he could blink.

"Humans, stupid," they spat up at him. "I can't stand them! They… they… They walk up there, all carefree and disgusting, and laughing and enjoying themselves, and pretending to be better than they are, and… and…" Envy's voice trailed off before it exploded in his face. "AND I HATE IT!"

But Greed was not as self-absorbed and egocentric as Lust and Pride thought he was. He was perfectly capable of understanding how others thought and felt, he just looked at it through the lenses of his own vice, always searching for ways to get more, and to fill the empty, howling void inside.

So what he heard instead was what Envy really wanted to say. And that wasn't _I hate it_ , it was _I want it._

The little one had began venturing out into the mortal world on their own lately, and the rest of the family soon realized that Envy's distaste for humans was bigger than Lust's and almost rivaled Pride's. That had actually helped smooth things over with the older siblings after Envy's unconvincing start at life, but sometimes Greed suspected there was more at work here. He was yet to figure it out, but one day he would, and when that happened Envy would belong to him completely.

"That so?" He smiled crookedly down at Envy, still holding on to them. "How can you hate something you can't understand, my little freak?"

"How dare you?!" Their purple eyes widened at him in offence, and they bared their white teeth. "Let me go, you scum! Let me go, I said! Le-"

Envy's words were cut off when Greed brought his face down and he claimed their mouth in a hungry kiss.

He had never kissed someone so inexperienced, and he had deflowered at least a dozen girls he could think of. Envy stiffened, and they didn't know what to do. They didn't have anywhere to go, encased in Greed's hold, and their lips trembled against his. And then, they started mimicking him, answering the kiss clumsily and greedily. Greed growled deep in his throat, pleased beyond belief.

This was it. This was fucking it, kids.

He was the first. He was the only one. He was always going to be the only one.

Envy arched their spine, pressing their face up to his, and he finally allowed his tongue to dart inside his sibling's mouth. The feeling was so intoxicating and empowering, that he no longer cared about the tragic loss of his collection of antique wines. And when Envy let their tongue to slither against his own, his hips buckled without the command of his will, pinning Envy even tighter against the wall.

When the two Homunculi broke their kiss, Greed stared down at Envy. Their purple eyes were almost alight, looking up at him. They were panting, and their lips were beginning to swell slightly.

What a sight.

"Again," Envy whispered and tilted their head up, to meet him. "Do that again."

* * *

 **Father's lair beneath Central,**

 **now**

"You actually did it?" The guy who looked just like Father sounded flabbergasted.

"Yes," came the answer from the being on the throne, "I acquired God."

Greed's arms trembled with effort as he pushed himself up and gazed at the old man.

Only, he didn't look old anymore. His form was… _different_. It was young and strong, wrought in the image of the ancient Xerxesian deities.

With a bored flick of his wrist the lair was suddenly lit by a bright, golden glow that hurt Greed's eyes and he squinted. He heard Pride hissing somewhere from behind.

"Is that…?" It was Ed who spoke, and when Greed's vision adjusted he saw Fullmetal staring with incredulity at Father's hand, where he held…

He held… a… _miniature sun?_

It floated gently above Father's upturned palm, bathing the black walls of the lair in the first sunlight they had ever seen. And yet, it burned with immense, highly condensed power. Greed could almost hear the energy humming around them.

It was then when the dad of the Elric brats stepped forward and started sassing Father. Greed could barely believe it.

Why was the guy doing that?

"He's making his move," Envy whispered next to him, and Greed saw a bunch of Pride's eyes narrowing at them, before turning towards Father.

Something in the world suddenly… _shifted_ , and Greed immediately felt so much better that he briefly wondered how had been able to exist a mere moment before. He jumped to his feet, instinctively covering himself up to the jaw with the Ultimate Shield before he looked to Envy. They had followed him, turning towards Pride.

It was then when the energy tidal wave hit them and the whole lair shook.

Greed lost his footing and staggered closer to Father and his tiny sun, but the old man didn't even notice him, his will pouring forth against his former human twin who held his ground.

Then the walls began rumbling and pieces of stone and concrete began raining all around.

Despite the noise, he managed to overhear the exchange going on between his father and the Elrics'. Something about Scar staying above to trigger a transmutation that would create a _reverse_ circle, using the shadow of the eclipse over Amestris to sap Father's ritual of its power and he would lose control over the millions of souls he had just devoured.

Or, at least, that's how Greed irritably rationalized the few words he had caught in all the commotion before Father suddenly hunched over and was split open by a tornado of screaming human souls that erupted above, leaving the lair in ruins in their wake. Greed barely managed to jump back, bumping into Envy. With his peripheral vision he glimpsed Pride and Gluttony retreating too.

When it was finally over and Father slumped back in his throne, they all moved as one, each of them realizing what had just happened.

They had dealt a blow to a god.

And he had just lost the resource needed to hold in the celestial energy he had stolen.

Homunculi and humans rushed towards Father's throne together.

Greed saw Ed pounding an automail fist to the ground to conjure an artillery of rudimentary cannons which began to fire slabs to heated metal transmuted from the service tunnels below. The burning projectiles hit a bubble of crackling red energy, Father using the power of his immense Philosopher's Stone to channel it directly.

He vaulted over a small avalanche of crumbling stones from the nearest wall when he saw Envy tossing a massive slab of concrete – much, much bigger than their petite form – towards Gluttony who couldn't duck in time. The little Xingese girl who had healed Hawkeye had fallen in alongside Greed and Envy, and she moved to support Envy with another of her weird transmutations, using throwing knives to detonate a set of explosions towards Pride's shadowy tentacles.

And then Greed swooped down as he ran, grabbing a piece of metal beam that had fallen among the steaming rubble. The giant clockwork devices behind the throne moved and creaked when Father deflected yet another attack, this coming from the Dublith butcher's wife. The mechanisms revealed a vat full of glowing, molten metal.

It was the same one where Father had once held him over, when he offered him to join up again, or be erased completely.

He launched himself into the air, invigorated by the desire to get back at the old man.

"That's irony, ain't it, Pops?" He shouted derisively when he flew up at him from behind and swung the metal beam at his white-blonde head. A blast of crimson energy sliced it off before it could struck Father, but Greed was already a few feet away, landing gracefully and twirling to toss the _other_ half of the beam into the chains that held the vat with molten metal up.

"Hope you enjoy the bath you were going to give me, old man!" He sneered as he watched the magma-like liquid wash over the throne and the wounded god upon it.

For a second everything was quiet, the humans breathing heavily, and then a blast of energy forced the molten metal out and reveled that Father was unscathed. But also, very, very angry.

"You insolent wretches!" He roared. "You dare to think you can stop me like this? I can always get more souls! There are _billions_ of you for me to use!" Then he looked at Greed and yelled, "Gluttony!"

"Yes, Father?" Gluttony whimpered fearfully as he edged away from Envy, and at the same hesitant to get closer to Father.

"Stay here and eat Envy and Greed," the old man commanded. "Pride and I will go above and deal with the insurrection."

"F-father? I… I thought I shouldn't eat family, Lust always said I…" He shook lightly. "Greed was very angry after I swallowed him and Envy once. Father? Can you bring Lust back now that you're God?" Gluttony suddenly babbled, desperation creeping into his voice. "She'll know what to do, she's smart, she will know if it's okay to eat them."

"Gluttony, stop with this nonsense and do as I bid," Father made to turn his attention away, but the fat fool spoke again.

"But… but you said you'd bring Lust back once you're God," Gluttony dropped on his knees before Father, his giant gut wobbling lightly as tears began to fall from his beady eyes. "You promised. Please, Father, I can't, I can't do it anymore, I can't be without Lust. You _promised!_ "

Father just stared at Gluttony for a long moment before he muttered, "Disgraceful."

He reached and touched Gluttony's bald head with his perfect hand.

Greed's younger brother let out a blood-curdling scream as red lightning pierced his skull and crackled around him.

"LUST! HELP ME, LUST!" He screeched, "LUST! L-LUST! HELP! L…" His voice got choked up and he shuddered. "LU… L…"

He continued screaming, but he appeared to be incapable of producing words. And then, just like that, it was over, and Gluttony fell on his face, right in Father's feet.

"You will no longer be bound by your weaknesses, my son," Father declared. "I have purged it from you. Now, you're nothing more than hunger. Go and gorge yourself on your treasonous siblings."

With that, the floor beneath Father suddenly rose up, bringing him up towards the surface. Pride's shadows dug into the transmuted pillar, pulling the vessel up and following him.

Greed wanted to go after him immediately, to finish him once and for all, but before he could even make a move, Gluttony was upon him.

It happened so swiftly that Greed lost his footing and fell down, buried beneath Gluttony's weight. He looked up and saw his brother – or what had remained of his brother – letting out a roar so devoid of any trace of reason and humanity that Greed shuddered involuntarily.

He barely managed to lift an arm up and cover it with the grey armor of the Ultimate Shield before Gluttony's maw snapped around his limb.

One second later and he would have bitten into his face.

"Damn it!" Greed clenched his teeth. "Stop it, Gluttony!" No effect, at all. Gluttony had always been obedient and fearful. It seemed it was no longer the case.

Greed tried to free his arm, but Gluttony wasn't letting go, his big, meaty hands grabbing and squeezing at Greed's head.

He didn't have a whole lot of choices here. Feeling the Ultimate Shield slithering up his _other_ arm, Greed shoved his claws right into Gluttony's eyes. Blood spurted out between his armored fingers and Gluttony screamed in pain. He began wailing at Greed with his heavy fists, striking him in blind, mindless fury.

"GLUTTONY!" A cold, commanding voice Greed hadn't heard in a long time echoed into the lair, and both Homunculi turned to it.

Greed almost grinned.

Envy had taken Lust's appearance, standing tall and regal in the dark. As Gluttony's eyes healed themselves, Greed expected him to start weeping in joy or something but, to his horror, Gluttony just let out an animalistic roar and lunged at Envy, without hesitation and without recognizing the form of his beloved sister.

Greed glimpsed Envy's eyes widening in shock as Gluttony came barreling at them, tackling them on the ground and immediately _biting down._

Envy's scream was cut short by a disturbing, wet sound as Gluttony gurgled around a mouthful of their flesh just as crimson lightning began repairing the damage.

" _NO!_ " Greed ran towards them and jumped at Gluttony, using his own momentum to drag him away from Envy's convulsing body.

He growled in absolute rage as he smashed an armored fist against Gluttony's snarling, mindless face. He hit him again, and again.

You try to hurt Envy, are you?

Not gonna happen. Not while Greed had even a spark of energy left inside his Stone.

Gluttony brought his hands up and grabbed at Greed's throat just as Greed kept pounding his face in. With a loud screech, Gluttony pushed Greed away and stood up clumsily, red light dancing around his bloodied head.

Greed came at him again, but this time Gluttony managed to instinctively lift one of his big arms, protecting his head and using it to slam his brother into the hard ground. He groaned as the air was painfully driven out of his lungs.

From his prone position, Greed saw Envy leaping into the air behind Gluttony, transforming their arm into a hooked blade that pierced the tendons between Gluttony's shoulder and arm.

"Gluttony, listen to me," Envy hissed in the effort of using the weapon to keep their brainwashed brother as steady and still as possible. "You don't have to fight us. He's not going to bring Lust back. Even if he took God's power, he still can't do something like that. She's gone. Stop fighting us, we can sti…"

Gluttony reached and grabbed Envy's long hair with his other hand, and cried out in pain as he lifted Envy's body up, pulling the blade out of his shoulder and bashing them violently against a half-collapsed column.

He opened his mouth again…

… And Greed shoved his arm right into it.

Gluttony tried to bite down, but the Ultimate Shield held on with a pained creak. He pushed down into his brother's gullet, down and down, until for a heartbeat Greed thought he could feel the pull of that quiet, dark void filled with an ocean of rotting blood. He shuddered, and yet kept reaching down into the blackness and then he finally felt the warmth of the Stone.

Greed closed his armored fist around it and _pulled_.

Gluttony made a choked, gurgling sound as Greed's gore-covered arm burst out of his throat, blood and chunks of flesh splattering everywhere. For a brief second that Greed wasn't about to forget any time soon, Gluttony looked so confused that it reminded him of how he had been before Father seared his mind away.

His claws flexed and the Philosopher Stone was no more.

Gluttony lurched forward and fell against Greed who held him as his body slowly turned to dust.

Greed took a deep breath and looked towards Envy.

They were still staring at the blackened pile of ashes that had been their little brother. A gust of wind that seemingly came out of nowhere scattered it away until not even the Homunculi could see the specks in the underground darkness.

"Envy?" Greed took a step towards them and grunted in pain as his Stone began fixing him up. "Envy? You okay, sweetheart?"

"He… he…" They shook their head.

"I know, sweet cheeks, I know," Greed knelt in front of them, trying to peer into their eyes. "I know you wanted to save them all. But I had to take him down. He wouldn't listen."

"No, he _couldn't_ listen," he saw tears threatening to fall down Envy's pale cheeks and they reached to scrub them off with a frustrated little growl. "He couldn't. He wasn't Gluttony anymore. The Dwarf took it away."

"Yeah…" What else were you supposed to say to that?

A distant explosion thundered in the distance above and the two Homunculi looked up, towards the enormous pillar Father had transmuted to get to the surface and devour any mortal he could find.

"They're fighting him," Envy said, their voice a little hollow. "The humans."

"Yeah. Persistent little buggers, ain't they?"

They fell silent for a few moments. Greed moved to sit next to Envy, and they both gazed towards that stretch of blue sky, pristine and bright, and looking as if it was miles away.

"You said _we,_ " Envy suddenly said, still staring up.

"What?" Greed wasn't sure he understood.

"Before we fell down here, when Wrath and Pride shoved Mustang through the Gate," Envy shrugged. "You told me we might go live someplace cold after this is over."

"Oh, that," He smiled faintly. "It was just a joke, sweetheart. I know you prefer to be warm."

"No, I…" They sighed. "I mean, you said that you and I are going to go somewhere. Together."

"Envy," Greed turned to look at them. "Envy, look at me," they did, and for the first time in almost two centuries, Greed realized that he had never managed to quite understand his lover, his most precious companion, his sibling. Until now. "There's a lot we need to talk about. A lot of stuff I need to say that I never said. Things like that tend to pile up the longer you live, you know? And we _will_ talk, but this is not the place nor the time. So for now all I need you to know," he swallowed, "is that the "we" part you mentioned? That's not negotiable. I'm not leaving you again, and I hope to God that you don't want me to leave either, because otherwise it's gonna be a tough eternity. You're not getting rid of me until I'm dead, sweet cheeks."

"Greed…" Envy whispered and lowered their eyes.

"No, c'mere," he murmured in response and cupped their chin in his hand – the one that _hadn't_ been inside Gluttony's throat – and lifted their face back up.

This kiss was different that all the others they had shared over their long lives. It was gentler and softer, but it also felt as if _something_ had finally clicked, something that went much deeper than passion and arousal.

Something that both of them had been afraid of, yet had desired all the same.

Each took a deep breath when they broke apart.

And they both spoke at the same time.

"We gotta help them, sweetheart."

"We have to stop him, Greed."

For a second they just blinked at each other, digesting what the other had said. Then Greed couldn't help it and chuckled loudly.

"It's not funny, stupid," Envy said sullenly, although with a smile hiding behind, and they punched his arm lightly.

"On the contrary, it's hilarious," Greed stood up, feeling stronger and determined. He bent down and reached a hand towards Envy. "Come on, sweets. Let's save the world."

* * *

 _Phew, this was an exhausting one. But I'm pretty happy with it, I managed to cover everything I wanted. In case it wasn't made clear, the chapter jumps a bit through time here and there, showing us moments from Greed and Envy's past as their present unravels._

 _The end is nigh,_

 _Rinso_


	23. Chapter 23

It was perhaps ironic how the first emotion Envy felt when they climbed over the edge of the gaping hole in the floor and saw Wrath's corpse was anger.

They weren't completely certain _who_ were they angry at. A part of them blamed Wrath himself. Much like Pride he hadn't been inclined to listen, and he had been willing to let the woman who had spent her short, mortal life with him die for the Dwarf's ascension. Hell, unless she had been stashed somewhere very close to the center of the lair – and she hadn't been – she had _actually_ died… at least for a little while, until Van Hohenheim had finally put his big plan in motion with that reverse transmutation circle. Wrath's callousness suddenly made Envy sick to their core.

But the truth was that Envy's real ire was aimed at their own powerlessness.

It was a truth that had a bitter taste to it.

What had happened in Kanama had proved that Envy was utterly incapable of making their siblings see the Dwarf for what it was. Or it was perhaps their siblings who were incapable of listening. Or perhaps it had just been too late by the time Envy began trying. Perhaps somehow they had known Wrath was not going to survive the moment he and Scar remained alone in the round chamber where Mustang had become a human sacrifice. Perhaps it was fate, everyone's destiny written in starlight up in the heavens, and there wasn't anything you could do to change it.

Not that it mattered much, Envy thought as they stood over Wrath's mangled body. He had died in a puddle of his own blood, both his arms deconstructed away.

"The bastard actually looks peaceful," Envy heard Greed mutter behind them. Lost in their morose thoughts, they hadn't heard him climbing after them.

He was right, though. The expression on Wrath's face was serene, to the point it was almost absurd. He had never been serene when he lived, always having to maintain control over the cold fury that fueled his Stone; even before that, before he became a Homunculus, before he became Envy's brother, when he had been just a clueless youth trained by the military on the Dwarf's orders, he had been driven, intense and aggressive.

With his Philosopher's Stone extinguished, Wrath's body had lost its superhuman virility and power, and his true age was plain for all to see. His hair had turned white and brittle, and his skin was wrinkled and almost translucent, cracked in unnatural patterns here and there, a proof of the alchemical force that had kept him strong. And now he was an old man, who had died with a hint of a smile on his lips. In death he looked nothing like the living brother Envy had known.

"We got to go, sweet cheeks," Greed said, and they turned to look at him.

He was staring up, towards the surface. Shouts, explosions and the sounds of alchemy going off frantically suddenly broke through the haze, and they remembered where they were and what they had to do.

And so Envy turned their back on Wrath's corpse and followed Greed.

They had a deranged father to kill and dead siblings to avenge on him.

* * *

When the two Homunculi reached the courtyard, they saw that the Dwarf and Pride were surrounded by a sea of humans.

Everyone was there.

The Elric brothers and Hohenheim, Ling Yao and Lan Fan, along with little Mei Chang, all four of Kimblee's chimeras, Armstrong and his sister who led a force of both Briggs and Central soldiers, Fullmetal's alchemy teacher and her ox of a husband… even Mustang who had gone blind and Hawkeye who looked pale and exhausted almost to the point of collapsing.

Everyone.

Alchemists. Soldiers. Foreigners. Civilians.

Humans.

Humans, who were fighting with everything they had. Together. Feuds and differences forgotten. Just a bunch of people who were willing to put their lives on the line and stop the abomination Envy's creator had become.

Envy suddenly remembered a conversation they had had with Kimblee once, during the war in Ishval.

The Crimson Alchemist had been wounded by one of the fleeing Ishvalans as he had flattened down a small oasis village where a few freedom fighters had hid themselves. It hadn't been anything grievous or something, just a few cracked bones and a bunch of bruises mixed with a few hours spent outside during the most heated part of the day, but it had put him on bed rest for all of a day and a half before his patience ran out and he left the local military infirmary on his own.

Envy had come to see his condition the night before he left, disguised as one of the nurses. After all, Kimblee had been a prime candidate to receive the Stone Dr. Marcoh had been working on, so Envy, being one of the two Homunculi charged with carving the Ishvalan Crest of Blood, had had to make sure that their asset was in condition to contribute to the Plan.

"You could have waited for your reinforcements before you stormed that oasis on your own," Envy had hissed at him derisively when they leaned over, pretending to be doing a medical check. "We don't need hotheads who get themselves killed, Crimson," they had added as a warning. Kimblee was valuable… but he wasn't irreplaceable.

"I could have," he had smacked his parched lips in a civil smile, his normally pallid complexion darkened by the merciless desert sun. "But it appears you misunderstand a fundamental aspect of warfare, or at least the way I see it."

"Which is?"

"When you fight to the death, you endanger your whole being. You place a bet, in a way, and you stake everything you are. Your history, your memories, your achievements, your hopes… Everything you are, you put on the line, and so does the guy who stands against you. And at the end of it, one of you is no more." His teal eyes had glazed over, staring at the filthy ceiling and the fat desert flies who liked to buzz around the infirmary. "It's the most beautiful expression of what a person is." He had focused back on Envy. "If you had wanted someone _careful_ , Homunculus," he smirked as he whispered the word, "you would have recruited a man like McDougal or Mustang. But you came to _me._ That's how I do things, immortal one. Life for us humans is too short to waste it _waiting for reinforcements_." He had chuckled softly as Envy snorted and shook their head, wordlessly leaving his bedside.

Kimblee, of course, had been a violent psychopath, and you had to take the words of a guy like that with a pinch of salt.

But as Envy watched Hawkeye guiding Mustang's aim so the blind alchemist could unleash a torrent of roaring fire at the Dwarf's direction, they wondered if Kimblee hadn't been on to something.

Maybe beautiful wasn't the right word, but for a fleeting moment Envy thought that they were finally able to understand something crucial about humans. They were all flawed, mentally, emotionally and physically, they were short-lived and weak-willed, and some of them were capable of every cruelty the Homunculi could think of and more… but when push came to shove, they didn't know when to quit. Envy had seen it before, but they could never really appreciate it until now.

It filled them with awe, to see such powerless beings trying to put down a living god.

Envy's eyes darted to look at Greed just as a volley of bullets hit the half-visible web of shrieking alchemical energy the Dwarf had encased itself with while the Tin Can and Armstrong both triggered transmutations to try and trap Pride in a similar way to what Hohenheim had done in Kanama, although the shadows somehow managed to evade them, the vessel surrounded by protective, swirling blackness – he was obviously trying to imitate the Dwarf, but even Pride's powers could not match a god's.

"They're trying to wear down his Stone," Greed said. "Look at him, he must be barely holding on to his power."

Just as he said that, Envy saw Ling lunge to strike a blow against the Dwarf from behind; the blade of his sword was caught in a powerful blast of energy that snapped the steel in two and sent the prince flying. Greed rushed forward and barely managed to catch the Xingese boy before he could hit the hard ground and break something vital.

Steadying himself with a hand upon Greed's shoulder, Ling turned and looked at the Homunculi.

"Glad you could make it, guys," he quipped, though his breathing betrayed how his strength appeared to be running out. "Truth be told, this guy is not a joke." He pressed a hand to his side and hid his wince, and Envy remembered that he had been wounded when he fought Wrath earlier.

"Yeah?" Greed narrowed his eyes at the Dwarf just as Olivier Armstrong bellowed an order in the distance and a rain of mortar shells rained down on it, obscuring it under a cloud of smoke and burning debris. "Well, kid, there's only so much you humans can do," a lazy grin bloomed across his handsome face, and Envy saw the Ultimate Shield slithering up his arms and shoulders, "Let's see how a Homunculus would fare." His purple eyes locked on Envy's and they could almost see the fire in Greed's stare even as his smile softened when it was turned towards them. "Help them out with Pride, will you, sweet cheeks? I think it's past time I had some words with dear old _dad_."

And just like that he was gone, dashing into the dark smoke with superhuman speed.

For a second Envy couldn't see a thing.

And then a deep, inhumanly loud screech thundered across the demolished courtyard, the shockwave dispersing the dust and the smoke. When they could finally lay their eyes on the Dwarf, Envy couldn't help it but gasp in shock.

It was on the ground, writhing in pain, sickly-looking veins bulging all across its perfect form. Greed was bent over it like a predator out of a nightmare, the orange glow of the fires reflected on the Ultimate Shield. One of his armored hands had been buried into the Dwarf's face, carbon-covered claws digging cruelly into alchemically-strengthened flesh.

"How'd _that_ feel, Pops?" Greed sneered at him, and he must have looked _terrifying_ to the Dwarf, his hatred for his maker finally allowed to manifest. "Even you gotta admit, it was a long way coming."

"He's _down_ ," Ling sounded almost bewildered next to Envy. "He went down."

He was wrong.

"Greed," the Dwarf hissed through clenched teeth as red lightning screamed and crackled around it and Greed. "Unintentional as it may have been," a small, pained groan escaped its lips but it didn't stop it from continuing to talk, "your arrival was most timely. You truly are a dutiful son, after all."

And then, suddenly, it was Greed whose body twitched and he cried out.

Oh _no._

Envy and all their siblings had been brought to life by the Dwarf. Each of the Homunculi was composed of thousands and thousands of lost souls, the erstwhile citizens of Xerxes. And every time it made a new Homunculus, the Dwarf had splintered off a part of its own essence to make a Stone that would animate and empower his latest creation. Amputating those souls within itself whom it had judged to be too imperfect for its posthuman glory, the Dwarf had rid itself of the seven sins that had always plagued mankind according to the mythology of ancient Xerxes… but the spiritual link between creator and creation could never be severed fully.

They suddenly remembered Tim Marcoh's words, back in the North. When you made something with alchemy, you could also unmake it.

Each Homunculus carried a part of their father within.

And he could take it all back anytime he wished.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!

Envy made to rush towards Greed, but their attention to the rest of the battle was lacking and they nearly paid the price.

They barely had the time to see Armstrong's huge, muscular body flying towards them and they somehow managed to duck and avoid the impact with the burly human who crashed just a few inches away from them, unconscious. The Strongarm Alchemist's fair skin was marred by deep, bloody cuts, and a few of the wounds looked especially nasty. And all that was on top of bruises and injuries that seemed a little less recent; he must have been fighting at his sister's side for hours by now.

Envy turned their head towards the direction where Armstrong had been thrown from and they saw a mass of black shadows and glowing eyes advancing towards a bunch of human soldiers. Alphonse was trying to hold it off, but he was losing ground. The sight was almost surreal under the bright sky and the warm sunlight.

Pride.

"Crap!" Ling swore, hurrying over to check on Armstrong.

For a heartbeat Envy was rooted in place, eyes darting between Pride and Greed, unsure what to do.

Every fiber of their being was screaming at them to go to Greed, to help him… but for all Envy might have desired to be like a human, for all the pain this had brought upon them, they were still a Homunculus. And a Homunculus was capable to always assess a situation and tailor their actions according to their strengths and circumstances. To be always cold and calculating, without letting emotions weaken the resolve to do what was necessary to win.

It didn't always work, of course. By now Envy knew well that Homunculi were far from perfect, and far less in control of their feelings and urges than they liked to boast.

But this time it worked.

Greed was struggling against the Dwarf, fangs bared in what seemed to be an enormous effort. His armored hand was still inside the abomination's head, red light pulsing up into his arm. The Pipsqueak tried to get to him and attack the Dwarf, but his blow was stopped in its tracks by a narrow wall that Envy's maker transmuted without even turning to look at the blonde alchemist.

If the Dwarf was able to eventually overpower Greed and take his power into itself, Envy stood no better chance than their lover.

In fact, their presence there might even make it worse, allowing the Dwarf to reabsorb _two_ Philosopher's Stones.

That's how it felt to be a Homunculus who felt human emotions; knowing that the best course of action was to _not_ aid the person that meant more than the whole world to you, and forcing yourself to take the agony and the guilt, to swallow the pain, because that's what making a choice on your own was.

"Find Mei! She can help him!" Envy shouted at the prince who had knelt at Armstrong's side, making the decision and breaking into a run towards Pride and the Tin Can.

They had to trust that Greed was strong enough to survive.

They had to hope.

"HEY, PRIDE!" Envy shouted roughly as they got closer to the mass of shadows. A few of the eyes that floated in the blackness turned to them and widened in surprise. "Forget those humans! You and I have some unfinished business!"

Pride pulled back a few sharp tendrils and held them coiled and ready to strike the moment Envy got within range. _Envy!_ Pride's soft, immaterial voice didn't sound as confident and assured as it normally did. _You got lucky in Kanama, but Greed won't be able to save you this time!_

Envy did not bother to respond.

Instead, they let go of fear and doubt, and assumed their true form. It never ceased to amaze them how easy it was to turn into a human, or even an animal. It required nothing more than being observant and thorough, allowing your gift to do the work for you. But when it came down to returning their body to its original state… _that_ alwayshurt. It was as if a part of Envy was fighting against it, mortified at having to exist in a body they hated and had never felt confidence or comfort in. It was a reminder of how wretched and misbegotten their creation had been.

They leapt high as their body grew and swelled with bulging green flesh covered with the weeping, twisted faces of the most envious and bitter among the dead Xerxesians. Enormous clawed limbs burst painfully out of Envy's sides just as their long, crocodile-like tail whipped the air, propelling them forward.

Pride's fanged mouths hissed vindictively and he fanned the shadowy blades and tentacles out, adjusting his aim for the big target Envy had presented him with.

"Envy, watch out!" Alphonse tried to warn them. It wasn't necessary, but Envy found themselves appreciating the gesture nonetheless.

But just when the black tendrils shot towards Envy, they shrunk themselves back into their favorite body, still in mid-air.

The move was so sudden that their insides clenched in agony for a brief moment, an enormous amount of energy drained from their Stone in less than three seconds. Envy's vision blurred, black and red spots dancing before their eyes… but the gambit had paid off.

Pride got caught utterly unprepared for something like this.

Blades of swirling darkness flashed harmlessly by Envy and they dove down, right into the bubble of shadows that had encased Pride's child-husk.

The cold hit them hard, and at first everything was so black that they wondered if Pride had somehow managed to gouge their eyes out without them noticing.

And then there was a brief flash of light as they tore through the shadows and saw Pride's vessel. Selim's little face registered unmistakable fear in the second before Envy's fist smashed against it and all the sharp maws that littered the shadows around cried out in pain.

Pride's vessel fell hard on the ground, and Envy allowed their body to crash on top of it.

He was in a _bad_ shape. Pieces of pale skin were flaking off here and there, and his jaw was marred by a gaping crack through which the black vortex of Pride's essence was staring up at Envy with horror.

"You fool!" Envy growled. "The transmutation, it weakened you, didn't it?" They grabbed Selim Bradley's slender throat in their hands, suddenly angry and remembering Wrath's withered, lifeless body below. "You're _dying_ and you're _still_ following him?!"

"I… I…" Pride sounded lost. He had _never_ sounded lost before. "I must!"

"No, you don't," they hissed back at him.

And then the blast struck and the world halted and trembled.

In the first few moments, Envy couldn't really feel anything. Everything was white, and there was no noises.

Were they dead?

Just as they wondered about it, their vision and their hearing returned, along with the sensations of their battered body desperately using the fading Stone to heal itself up.

Envy tried to get up, but succeeded only in falling back with a choked grunt. Their head was spinning, and their ears were ringing, sending jolts of pain right into their brain.

Vaguely, they felt something move in the steaming rubble next to them and they turned their hazed stare to see Selim Bradley struggling to lift himself up on a broken elbow, small wisps of black shadows digging into the ground to give him leverage.

Everything was covered in grey, foul-smelling smoke. People were yelling somewhere in the distance.

Alphonse Elric's suit of armor was nearly destroyed, chunks of charred metal scattered all around. By some miracle his blood seal had survived and through the smoke Envy could see him trying to move what was left of his artificial body.

Further ahead, and almost entirely obscured by the smoke, his brother was in a worse situation. The blast had dismantled his automail arm and the shockwave had thrown him against a slab of broken wall and, as luck would have it, his upper body was impaled on a piece of iron sticking from the concrete. The Pipsqueak was still alive too, but he was in obvious pain.

Greed was nowhere to be seen.

And then, when Envy blinked to clear their vision up a little, so they could get back up and look for Greed, they suddenly saw the Dwarf looming above them and Pride.

It no longer resembled a god.

Its long, white-blond hair was in disarray, its body was trembling violently, skin covered in pulsating, black veins, and when it opened its mouth to speak, Envy saw the Eye peeking through the Dwarf's gullet, distorting the very air around it and making the smoke swirl in unnatural patterns. It had to be moments away from losing its grip on the stolen godhood.

"My children," the Dwarf croaked, the look in its eyes maniacal and fearful at the same time. "The rest of your brothers are dead. I sensed their Stones flickering out. Greed has tricked me and escaped, but you will aid your loving father, will you not?"

And then its hands shot out so fast that even Homunculi vision could not help, and it squeezed both Envy and Pride's throats, lifting the two of them from the rubble.

Envy tried to struggle, but they were too slow.

Their vision suddenly blackened and when they opened their eyes, they no longer were in their own body.

Or into the world of the living, for that matter.

They were falling into a vortex of screaming souls, the very air around soaked with suffering and terror, the denizens of this red tempest quaking and thrashing against the pitiless, monolithic hold of the otherworldly will that devoured a whole nation, wiping it out from the face of the earth and turning its people into resource to fuel its own existence and ambitions.

Envy felt something screeching in fear next to them and somehow they knew it was Pride even before they glimpsed Selim Bradley's child-like body plummeting through the whirlpool of tortured humanity.

Suddenly they felt as if everything was closing in, the will that held the souls captive here focusing on the essence of the two Homunculi it had began to reabsorb, demanding and hungry for the influx of power it awaited.

"No!" Pride screamed as something invisible grabbed at him and began pulling him further down into the howling blackness at the end of the tempest of souls. "Father, no! I'm loyal to you! Don't! Please don't!"

Damn it all to Hell.

Envy dove after him, reaching with their hand, feeling as if their shoulder could snap at any moment. Pride's eyes stared up at them, huge, wet and full of horror and the realization he had been betrayed.

"Take my hand, damn you!" Envy screamed at him. "Take it!"

Pride's small fingers desperately brushed against theirs and for a heartbeat an image flashed against their mind's eye and it made their breath hitch.

They had never expected it from Pride.

Pride was thinking of someone else as he faced his death.

And he was thinking of Mrs. Bradley.

Wrath had not cared enough about the woman who thought of him as her husband.

But Pride's core was full of affection for the woman who thought of him as her son.

Perhaps it would have been too much to claim that Pride _loved_ her, but what Envy sensed from him in that brief moment of contact was also filled with everything he had claimed not to be. He cared about a human, and he was remorseful about letting her spend her life living inside a lie, about not managing to secure her safety during the Promised Day… even about dying, because he knew she would suffer when she found it all out.

"I'm sorry, Mama," Pride whimpered quietly as he closed his teary eyes, resigning himself and letting go of Envy.

"PRIDE! DON'T BE A FOOL! WE CAN FIGHT HIM TOGETHER!" Envy shouted, reaching out again, their desire to save their family reinvigorated after what they just witnessed.

"I can't," Pride shook his head as darkness began eating at his essence. "I have too much of him in me. Save yourself, Envy."

Envy just bared their teeth in defiance, refusing to listen.

And then booming laughter echoed all across the raging tempest and the cosmic will recoiled in fright.

Was that…?

Suddenly, Envy could see the world again and when they did, they cried out in shock, their lungs contracting painfully as they could finally taste air.

The Dwarf was on its knees, and between it and Envy stood Greed, his hands once again sinking into their father's body. Next to Envy, Pride's vessel fell on the ground and turned to ash, specks of black scattering in the cool wind.

"You wanna take someone's Stone, huh, old man?" Greed taunted the Dwarf. "Then why don't you leave the kids alone and try and take _mine_?"

What… what was he doing?

"G-grrrreeeed!" The Dwarf slobbered over the Eye in his throat that was trying to tear itself free. "Y-y-youuu… treacherrrrrroussssss…"

He could no longer form words and he let out such a deafening howl of pain that Envy trembled. Greed just laughed, beads of sweat falling down his handsome face. The Dwarf's body was beginning to form a shell made out of the Ultimate Shield where Greed was connected to it.

"Come on," he bent over the kneeling Dwarf, his fangs next to his creator's terrified face. "That's what you wanted, ain't it? Bit too late for regrets, innit?"

" _NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_ " The Dwarf lurched back, tearing itself free from Greed who stumbled back and fell before Envy.

"Greed?" Envy crawled to his fallen form. "Greed, get up. What did you do to him? Greed? Why aren't you getting up? GREED!"

"Hey there, sweetheart," Greed finally opened one plum-colored eye and stared up at Envy, smiling at them. "I gave him what he wanted, is all. Though he forgot one little thing." A short, painful shudder shook his broad chest as he tried to laugh. "Did I ever tell you how Ed beat me back in Dublith?" Greed asked softly as the Dwarf made to stagger away in fear, its skin covering itself with the Ultimate Shield only to have one of its legs break off at the ankle when it put weight on it. With a shriek, the Dwarf fell on the ground, regrowing the limb but still failing to control Greed's Shield. "He changed the composition of the Ultimate Shield, turned it brittle. Neat idea, huh?" Greed grinned as they heard another terrified scream and laid his head on Envy's lap with a satisfied sigh, closing his eyes as if he was getting ready for a nap.

The veil of smoke around them was beginning to thin out, but they still felt as if they were cut off from the rest of the world.

Envy's lips trembled.

If what Greed said was true, it meant that…

No…

Tears spilled freely from their eyes and Greed looked back up at them when he felt them falling on his skin.

"Don't cry, sweetheart," he said gently. "I'm not worth your tears. Never did right by you."

Envy could only squeeze their eyes shut and shake their head, their body wracked by small tremors.

"Envy," Greed said, his voice getting weaker. "Envy, look at me, baby." They had no choice but to oblige him. "I don't think I've got a lot of time left," He smiled apologetically at them, the light fading away from his eyes. "I did tell you we had to speak, but I guess all I can do now is give you the cliffnotes." He was serious now, visibly summoning what little remained of his strength to stay with them a little longer.

Why did it have to hurt so much?

How could humans endure it?

"I'm sorry," Greed rasped suddenly, capturing their attention once more. "For all the times I hurt you. With words, or actions. It was wrong of me. I always knew it was wrong," he swallowed heavily and lifted a hand to touch Envy's wet cheek with the tips of his strong fingers. "I think… I think I was afraid. Because I knew it was real. Deep down, I knew. Ever since I saw you for the first time."

"Greed," Envy managed to hiccup through their tears, "don't die. Please."

"I don't think it's up to me, sweets," Greed closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he opened them again, staring right at Envy. "I don't mind going out like that, you know? I got to screw over a god and now I'm looking at the prettiest face I've ever seen. How many guys can say that, huh? I only wish you weren't hurting."

He tried to reach for them again, but as he did, his hand slowly crumbled, turning into black ash. Envy couldn't hold back the chocked sob that rose up from their chest.

"I think this is goodbye, Envy," Greed breathed as his body began to disintegrate. "Try to remember the good times we had, alright, sweetheart? Every once in a while?" His final words were a whisper. "I'll miss you. Thank you for everything you shared with me."

And then he was no more, his ashes getting caught by the wind so it could scatter them all around. Perhaps each speck would have eventually floated to a different destination one day, just like he had wanted to see and try everything this world had to offer.

* * *

Envy did not truly remember the end of the battle or the death of the Dwarf.

The rational part of their mind had observed it in the moments after Greed died, Alphonse sacrificing himself to restore Edward's arm, Edward finally landing the mortal blow against the Dwarf – and managing to do that only because of what Greed had done – the Dwarf itself imploding under the assault of God's power… They knew all of that had happened, but it was as if it happened to someone else, someone who felt like more than just a hollowed-out observer.

It was the baby's cry that finally got their attention and they turned to where Pride's vessel had fallen after the Dwarf killed him.

The baby was the tiniest thing Envy had ever seen, and it looked so utterly defenseless amidst the death and the destruction that Envy's throat tightened even more.

They took the baby carefully into their hand and looked down at it.

It was Pride… and yet… it _wasn't_.

Pride's memories, Pride's power, Pride's malice… all that had been devoured by the Dwarf before Greed intervened and saved the world.

" _Mama,_ " the tiny baby cooed, curling up into a ball inside Envy's palms, and then they finally understood.

Pride the Homunculus, who had gleefully served under a monster, had been vanquished.

But Selim Bradley, the son of a devoted mother who cared about her even though he was not supposed to, still lived.

Envy looked around and saw Lan Fan approaching their location.

"Envy?" The Xingese girl cried when she saw them standing among rubble and smoke. "Are you hurt? The young lord sent me to find you and Greed. Edward…" She lowered her eyes for a second, as if she didn't know what exactly to say, " He is going to try and bring his brother back."

"Wish him luck for me," Envy said evenly, feeling hollow on the inside. They handed the baby to Lan Fan who was probably expecting anything but _that_. "Take it to Mrs. Bradley when things calm down. That's her son."

"Her s…" Lan Fan was so confused that she took the tiny fetus without any protest. "Envy? Envy! Where are you going?"

"Away," they shrugged as they walked past her, before they stopped and turned their head around. "You did well. All of you humans did. Congratulations."

Lan Fan kept calling after them, but they didn't turn back anymore.

There was nothing else for them here.

* * *

 _Okay._

 _So, this is the final chapter. There is also an epilogue, which will be uploaded immediately after this._

 _That's it. The story is done._

 _I'm not sure how many people would like the ending. Perhaps some of the readers may have hoped for a happier end to this story. I myself struggled with all sorts of ideas on how to end it for a long while before I settled on this one, firmly believing it was for the good of the story. In case anyone's curious, the other idea I was big on was much happier, Greed and Envy both survived, though thanks to the toll the battle took, they had only normal lifespans left inside their Stones, and they ran away together, adopting baby Selim. Even as I write it here, the part of me who likes to write more serious and sadder stuff sort of recoils at that lol_

 _To everyone who reads this chapter and is pissed off at the lack of a happy ending, all I can say is, "Read the epilogue". I didn't do it to fuck with you, I was going for bittersweet and right now you're at the bitter part, so just check the epilogue out and THEN tell me I'm an asshole._

 _Love to all,_

 _The asshole who didn't write a happy ending_


	24. Epilogue

The floor creaked under Envy's feet and the child's eyes fluttered open.

They carefully sat on the edge of the bed, looking down at Elicia Hughes as she balled her little fists and tried to rub the sleep off her lids. Envy had turned the lights on and they supposed that she might need a few moments to adjust her vision.

Finally she could see clearly and she stared up at Envy, her eyes huge and full of confusion.

"Daddy?" Elicia whispered, her voice trembling ever so slightly. "Did you... did you came back home?"

"I'm afraid not, princess," Envy said in the voice of Maes Hughes, tilting their head sideways and giving the girl a small smile. "You're dreaming, Elicia."

"Oh..." She accepted that statement easily. Whether it was because she was still incredibly young, or because she had dreamed of her father visiting her before, Envy could not say. "I miss you, Daddy," she murmured, so softly that even a Homunculus' hearing could barely catch it.

Envy took a deep breath and slowly leaned over the child, carefully stroking a lock of light brown hair behind a small ear and trying not to muck the movement up. Hughes' fingers were a bit bigger and thicker than their own and they hadn't had the chance to adapt all their senses to his form.

They didn't have a lot of time left.

But they had enough to make at least _something_ right.

"I know, little bean," they said, looking into the child's eyes and seeing the pain.

The pain _they_ had put there when they shot her father to death.

The pain that, at least if Edward Elric had been any indication, would never truly leave her eyes.

Once they would have laughed about it. Hell, once they _had_ actually laughed about it, after Wrath had stormed into the lair and told everyone how much Elicia had cried during her father's funeral and how angry she had made him.

Now they knew that there was nothing amusing about it. Nothing at all.

But it was too late. Far too late. Far, far too late.

Too late for Hughes. Too late for Elicia.

Too late for Envy too.

Because now they knew perfectly well how she felt. They wondered if they would have sobbed their heart out if Greed had had a funeral and they had to watch them lower his dead body into the ground. Envy swallowed heavily, trying to make their throat feel less constricted.

"I miss you too, Elicia," they said as gently as they could. Envy had impersonated parents before, of course – many times, but never under those circumstances.

She leaned her head back into the pillows, gazing up at Envy.

"You weren't on my birthday," she finally said, her small mouth pouting ever so slightly.

"I'm sorry I missed it, honey," Envy whispered and did the math in their head, trying to summon all the information about Hughes from Central's files and documents. "You're four now, Elicia, a big girl."

"Winry didn't come either," Elicia's lower lip wobbled.

"I'm sure she'll come visit you as soon as she can, sweetie," Envy smiled indulgently at the daughter of the man they had murdered.

Her father's grin did the trick. Elicia quickly sat up and launched herself at Envy who caught her in their embrace a little haphazardly.

"I wish you were real," she sighed into the shoulder of Hughes' uniform, and for a moment she sounded so much older than her years that something stirred painfully inside Envy. "That it's not a dream and that you're not dead, and that you'll be home tomorrow."

Envy held her for a few moments, then they pried her off, tenderly but firmly.

"Elicia, listen," they said softly, "It _is_ a dream and I _won't_ come home. I'm sorry, baby," they added when they saw the look in her big green eyes, "but daddies shouldn't lie to their daughters. But... you're wrong about one thing. I am real."

The child looked at him, her lack of comprehension glaringly obvious. "B-but... you just said it's a dream, Daddy."

"It is," Envy nodded, "But I will always remain real. Right here," they reached and tapped a finger just above her heart. "As long as you remember that Daddy loves you, little bean, I'm always going to be with you."

As they said the words, a part of them was surprised that they believed it. But they did. If you truly loved someone, someone you lost, the memories of them would never leave you, would never give you a reprieve.

Elicia threw herself at them once more, squeezing them with all the strength of her tiny, human body.

"I will!" She swore fervently, nodding rapidly against Envy's chest. "I'll remember, Daddy, I promise! I love you, Daddy!"

"Daddy loves you too," Envy whispered back at the child, remembering her real father's last words. "And I'm sorry I had to leave you."

"Mom is still sad, too," the child mumbled. "She doesn't cry as much as she did at first but she misses you too."

For a moment Envy was unsure _how_ to answer. "I know," they said, indeed knowing exactly the sort of anguish Gracia Hughes had gone through thanks to them. "I'm sorry she's sad, sweetie. But it will get easier."

They felt Elicia nod again, her small body feeling a little heavier and sluggish in their arms as sleep began to creep back at her. Envy eased her back into the bed and covered her with the blankets she had kicked off when she first awoke.

"Can you do something for me, princess?" They asked the child and chuckled when they saw her struggling to remain awake.

"Sure thing, Daddy," she yawned.

"Look after your mom for me, would you?" Envy said gently. "She loves you very much and it's just the two of you now. Always be there for each other. That's what family is for. Okay?"

"Okay," Elicia answered, her eyes closing and her breathing getting sleepier and sleepier by the moment. "Night, Daddy. Love you."

Envy watched her slumber for a little while and then they got up from the bed, mindful not to make any noise.

They left the way they came – through the window, silently transforming into a black raven and flying into the night.

* * *

They ended up on the rooftop of "Crown", swooping down from the sky and assuming their favorite form. It took them such an effort that they were left panting and rubbing tears of pain from their blurry eyes. Red light flickered sickly around their body, their Stone using up the very last of its reserves to keep them standing.

As their breathing calmed down, Envy realized that this, most likely, had been their final transformation. The energy of the Philosopher's Stone was all but completely depleted, the supernatural strength and vitality of the Homunculi waning so rapidly that they could feel it melt away inch by inch.

Just as well.

Envy did not mind dying in this body. They had always liked it, and so had Greed.

Even walking was becoming difficult. Envy slowly made their way towards the edge of the roof and sat down with an exhausted sigh, staring down at nothing and everything at once.

Central seemed oddly quiet. No nightlife to speak of, almost no traffic. Not even a whole lot of lights. It looked like the city had finally found peace, now that the malevolent entity that had tormented this country since its inception was gone forever.

Most of the humans had retired to be with their families and loved ones after the battle was done and the worst of the rubble was cleared out.

Humans, huh...

They had fought and clawed and cried and sacrificed. They had earned their victory. They had earned their reprieve. They had earned the right to keep their world and their lives. They had earned their tomorrow.

And soon Envy was going to be gone too, the last of the seven monsters who had tried their best to ruin mankind.

It was strange, to be the last one. It wasn't so much the loneliness of it, Envy decided. After all, they had spent the bigger part of their long life feeling alone in one way or another. Perhaps it simply felt like some sort of cosmic joke that wasn't especially funny. All of them were dead now. Lust with her beauty, Pride with his cruelty, Sloth with his strength, Wrath with his swords and his Ultimate Eye, Gluttony with his all-consuming hunger... Even Greed, with his handsome face, deft hands and the desire to have anything this world had to offer.

All of them gone, to leave only the bitter, envious freak behind.

 _Really_ not high in terms of amusement value, but ironic nonetheless, Envy supposed.

No matter. The air smelled of the coming dawn, birds were beginning to chirrup and the sky was turning purple and indigo, chasing the blackness away.

It wouldn't be long. They could feel it. They had known that taking on Hughes' appearance and maintaining it for as long as it took to speak with Elicia would sap them of the last bits of power they had left after the battle. Perhaps in another world, in another life another Envy might have tried to conserve that power, make it last for a few more days or weeks as they desperately sought a way to replenish themselves.

That prospect held no appeal at all. Not in this world, not in this life, to this Envy.

The last sparks of energy inside their Stone were extinguished just as the sun was rising above the forests and the hills in the east. It colored the sky in hues of pink, orange and bright blue, bathing the sparse clouds in golden light and heralding the arrival of the day. It really was a beautiful morning.

A gust of cool wind caressed their skin and when they looked down and saw their body slowly crumbling to dust, they felt only surprise at the lack of pain and fear. They lifted a hand and stared as it quickly began to dissolve, soot-like specks flying in the air.

Envy closed their eyes, leaned their head back and thought of Greed as they breathed their last.

* * *

When they opened them again, they were standing in a place that held nothing but whiteness and a huge, looming set of doors suspended in mid-air.

Huh...

They had wound up back at the Gate of Truth...

And before it...

"Greed?" Envy blinked, their voice coming out squeakier and more surprised that they probably would have intended.

He immediately turned and Envy realized that they didn't _care_ about their fucking voice.

They were looking at him again.

He was here.

With them.

Greed got up and strode towards Envy. Before they could say anything he had taken them in his embrace and they instinctively pressed close to him, inhaling his scent.

He was here and they were with him again.

It took Envy a few seconds to realize that the sobbing was coming from them. Perhaps they ought to have felt mortified or humiliated, but they didn't. Greed just tightened his muscular arms around them when he heard them crying.

"It's okay, sweet cheeks," that familiar cocky, self-assured timbre of his voice made them remember how he had screamed when Mustang burned him and they clutched his stupid sleeveless jacket, crying harder. "Let it all out, beautiful, all of it. It's okay."

"You _idiot!_ " Envy hiccupped miserably, burying their face into his chest, "You _had_ to go and be a hero!"

"A hero?" They heard Greed chuckle. "I don't know about that, sweet cheeks. Just did what felt right at the time."

Envy's breathing hitched as they felt his hand rubbing their back, trying to soothe them.

"It's okay now," Greed told them again, and they managed to look up at him. There was an odd, soft look in his eyes and a small smile on his lips. "I'm not leaving you again."

"You promise?"

He smirked, "'Course I do, sweetheart."

Envy nodded, took a deep breath and disentangled themselves from him.

They glanced around, but there really was _nothing_ to look at here, aside from Greed and the massive set of iron doors hovering behind him. They were surrounded by a clean, white void.

It was odd. And oddly familiar, too.

"Funny thing about dying," Greed said, looking perceptively down at them, "it really clears your head up, doesn't it? Like getting rid of the cobwebs in an old attic," Envy snorted at his choice of words, but they knew what he meant.

"We were here before," they said softly.

"Yeah, we passed through this place when we got out of Gluttony. Strange, but I couldn't remember a single thing after we broke through."

"I could. Sort of," Envy leaned into him again. "I think this was when I decided to turn against the Dwarf."

"What made you decide?" Greed asked, nothing but honest curiosity in his plum-colored eyes.

" _Envy saw the truth,_ " a strange, echoing voice said and the two Homunculi turned their heads towards it.

The voice belonged to what Envy could describe as a white shadow. It was in the shape and the size of a human, but had no features to speak of. It had seemingly appeared out of thin air.

Or maybe it had always been here.

Perhaps they ought to have been frightened or startled. This thing seemed bizarre and alien even to a Homunculus.

And yet... Somehow, its presence didn't feel threatening.

"Nice to meet you too," Greed lifted a sardonic black eyebrow at the strange figure, shifting his body ever so slightly to be ready to move himself between it and Envy. They put a hand on his arm to calm him down.

"Who... or what are you?" Envy asked it.

The creature let out a small chuckle. " _Almost everyone asks me that question when they see me,_ " it remarked, its voice ringing in the white nothingness around the Gate. " _In short,_ _I am Truth. Or God. Or the Universe. Or the world. All and one. Whichever you two prefer,_ " it shrugged. Despite the fact that it didn't have a face as such, Envy somehow got the impression that the being seemed mildly amused and not especially concerned about what it was called.

"Wait, so... you're the one the old man was trying to take down the whole time?" Greed sounded surprised. "Holy crap..." He drove a hand through his black hair. "I didn't think you'd be... you know, an actual person and all."

" _Yes,_ " Truth nodded and cocked its head to the side. " _Your creator was certainly ambitious. But hopelessly deranged. Perhaps the way he was put together into the mortal world was what damaged him. Or perhaps he has always been what he was. It doesn't matter. He's gone, one with the void again. You don't have to fear him anymore._ "

"But..." Envy's voice was small and confused, "If _he's_ gone... then..."

"...Why are we still here?" Greed finished for them.

Why just the two of us, was the unsaid question. Why not Lust and Pride, and Wrath, and Gluttony, and Sloth? How were we different? Aren't we all just fragments of the Dwarf's vices?

Shouldn't we too have been wiped away from the Universe along with him?

To the surprise of the two Homunculi, Truth just leaned its head backwards and laughed. " _You see,_ " it said after a few seconds, when it recovered, its voice suddenly full of fondness. " _There was this one, tiny, powerless human. I'm sure you two are familiar with him. He figured it out when he came to retrive his brother._ "

Oh. So the Fullmetal Pipsqueak had finally succeeded. Weird... Considering how much Envy was used to think of him as an annoying enemy, they now felt glad for his sake. Good for the brats. To their surprise, Envy found themselves silently wishing the Elric brothers a long and peaceful life. They had earned it.

Then Truth spoke again, " _It's the opposite of what your creator tried to achieve. It's never about power, little Homunculi. He let go of his arrogance and his alchemy to save his brother. And he knew that it was not a punishment or a humiliation. He told me that he was nothing but a simple human, but as long as he loved and was loved back, it was alright. That's the answer. Humans were not put on this world to chase cosmic powers and hurt each other,_ " Truth's eyeless face stared at them and his voice turned serious. " _And neither were you._ "

Envy and Greed did not know what to say. They merely looked at each other.

Envy stared at Greed and remembered how he had uttered his first – and last – lie when he took the blame for Hughes' death. How he had faced Mustang's fire because in his heart of hearts, he couldn't... _wouldn't_ allow Envy to suffer. They remembered how he had stood against the Dwarf in the final fight outside Central High Command, allowing himself to be reabsorbed so he can weaken the abomination from within and give Fullmetal the chance he needed to finally land the decisive blow. He had died saving the world. Saving Envy.

" _You're selling yourself short again, Envy,_ " Truth said mildly. Their gaze flicked back towards it. For a brief moment they wondered if it was able to read their thoughts... before they reminded themselves that they were standing before _God_ itself. " _You still think you're incapable of love. Your creator certainly did everything he could to impair that in all of you. And to you, Envy, he gave his worst sin,_ " The ethereal being sounded almost compassionate. " _And yet you did all you could to save your siblings, to prove to yourself that your nature does not rule over you. And the kindness you showed to that child in your last hours does you credit, too._ "

"I was nice to _one_ little girl," Envy said hoarsely. With the corner of their eye they saw Greed frown, not understanding entirely what was being said. "What of the one whose face I shot off in Ishval? How many little girls died there? How many little boys, how many mothers, fathers? Brothers and sisters? Friends and lovers?"

" _Many,_ " Truth said dispassionately. " _Thousands upon thousands. But the afterlife is not about punishments and rewards, Envy. That's one thing the humans always get wrong._ "

"What _is_ it about, then?" Greed wondered as he moved to put an arm around Envy's shoulders, wordlessly offering support.

" _Letting go. Moving on,_ " Truth answered him simply. " _What is done is done. Nobody can change the past. Not even I._ " It shrugged. " _Every person you Homunculi have ever killed has passed through their Gate, to the beyond. They don't suffer anymore, Envy. And by the time they went, they didn't wish you suffering either. Now you have to move on too._ "

A heavy sound made Envy and Greed look back towards the doors.

They were slowly creaking open, soft light pouring through the widening gap.

"Huh," Greed scratched the back of his head and chuckled. "So _that's_ why it wouldn't open before..."

"What?"

"Ever since I got here," he said, looking down at Envy, "it remained closed. I get it now. It was waiting for you. _I_ was waiting for you."

"You mean..."

"We're going together, sweetheart," Greed smiled and reached to take their hand in his. "I told you. I'm not leaving anymore."

"Never?" They asked before they could stop themselves. "You'll go with me? You'll stay with me?"

"Forever," he nodded.

The gate was fully open now. They couldn't see what lay ahead, only the flowing, gentle light. Envy looked back for a moment, but Truth was gone.

They swallowed and turned to Greed.

"I love you," Envy whispered.

There it was. Finally out in the open. There would be no taking it back now.

It took both of them dying for Envy to confess, because of course it did.

Greed grinned widely at them, and something in his eyes told them he understood perfectly. "Love you too, sweet cheeks. Now let's see what's on the other side, what do you say?"

Envy nodded and squeezed his strong hand.

The two Homunculi stepped through the Gate together and let the light engulf them.

 **THE END**

* * *

 _Aaaaand, this is it. "Avarice and Jealousy" is DONE._

 _I hope it was an enjoyable story to read, despite all its issues. Before I began, I didn't think I could write a full-length FMA story, but here it is._

 _A huge THANK YOU to everyone who read it; I hope you all liked it._

 _An even bigger THANK YOU! to everyone who took the time to comment; considering how obscure the ship that fueled this fic is, every comment was highly appreciated and gave me the power to brave on._

 _Love to all,_

 _Rinso_


End file.
